The Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers have issued a new final rule that they say will clear up the muddy definition of which rivers, streams, wetlands and other bodies of water are subject to federal regulation and which are not.
The regulation, which the agencies announced on May 27, is important to construction firms, which need to obtain a Corps permit to build in and around federally regulated waters.
It has become one of the Obama administration's most closely watched regulations and drawn praise from environmental organizations and their congressional allies and fierce attacks from its critics in industry and on Capitol Hill.