Contractors, developers, farmers and landowners should be able to stand on a piece of property and easily identify which streams, ditches and ponds on the land fall under federal jurisdiction under a new proposed “Waters of the United States,” definition, according to EPA officials.
“Our simpler and clearer definition would help landowners understand whether a project on their property will require a federal permit or not, without spending thousands of dollars on engineering and legal professionals,” Andrew Wheeler, acting administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement announcing the joint EPA and Army Corps of Engineers proposal on Dec. 11.