The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finished 2022 with a new rule defining Waters of the United States (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act. The updated rule keeps longstanding exemptions for farming activities but sheds an exclusion for prior converted cropland that was in Trump’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule.

EPA and Army Corps of Engineers released a joint statement regarding the 514-page rule, saying the update restores essential water protections in place prior to 2015 under the Clean Water Act. The rule will take effect 60 days after formally publishing it in the Federal Register. The latest WOTUS definition is an effort by the Biden administration to find a “durable” solution for protecting wetlands and streams.

Read more on the updated WOTUS rule here.