The following maps show how the Waters of the U.S. Rule, as finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers, will radically expand federal jurisdiction over land use. The controversial Waters of the United States Rule takes effect on Aug. 28, 2015. That expansion comes even as major parts of the rule remain largely incomprehensible to experts and laypeople, alike.
The maps, prepared by Geosyntec Consulting, show the dramatic expansion of EPA's regulatory reach, stretching across wide swaths of land in the states illustrated by the maps. In Pennsylvania, for example, 99 percent of the state's total acreage is subject to EPA scrutiny. Landowners have no reliable way to know which of the water and land within an area will be regulated, yet they must still conform activities to the new law.
Maps prepared to date can be found on the Farm Bureau’s website at FB.org.
*Additional maps are being developed.
Interactive maps in detail: The maps' base layer shows areas regulated as tributaries and adjacent wetlands without a case-specific “significant nexus” analysis under previous rules. Through a progression, the maps add “ephemeral streams”—low spots in the land that drain and channel water away from farmland after a rain but are otherwise dry. The EPA has sometimes asserted jurisdiction over such areas before, but only after a site-specific finding of a “significant nexus” to downstream waters. Under the new rule, all such “ephemeral tributaries” are regulated.
Maps Show WOTUS Jurisdiction
