Talking Under Water Episode 81: WOTUS & The Clean Water Act

Nov. 3, 2023
In this episode, Duke McCall, partner at Morgan Lewis, discusses implications of SCOTUS' Sackett v. EPA decision.

In this episode of Talking Under Water, Jeremy Wolfe interviews Duke McCall, partner at Morgan Lewis. The two discuss the U.S. Supreme Court's May 2023 ruling in Sackett v. EPA and its implications. McCall describes the function of the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) in the Clean Water Act, the story behind the Supreme Court decision in Sackett v. EPA, which limited the reach of the definition for WOTUS, and how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has adjusted its definition of WOTUS after the ruling. 

 

Show Notes:

 

Timestamps: 

  • Episode Summary | 0:06 
  • What is WOTUS, and how does it affect Clean Water Act compliance? | 0:31 
  • How does the latest Supreme Court decision affect WOTUS? | 3:12 
  • How did the other justices want to define WOTUS? | 6:09 
  • How has EPA and the U.S. Army adjusted the definition of WOTUS in response to this? | 7:37 
  • What is significant about this change? | 10:05 
  • What sort of effects do you think this will bring for the nation’s water quality and environmental health, generally? | 11:19 
  • Housekeeping | 12:36 

 

Resources: 

 

About the Podcast   

Talking Under Water is the premier podcast for the water industry, including municipal and industrial water and wastewater, residential water treatment, storm water management and erosion control. It is produced in coordination between Water & Wastes Digest (WWD), Water Quality Products (WQP) and Storm Water Solutions (SWS). The podcast covers topics under the One Water movement including the municipal and industrial water and wastewater, point of use, point of entry, residential, storm water and erosion control markets. Talking Under Water highlights news, trends, new technologies, industry discussions and on-site interviews with experts for WWD, WQP and SWS. New episodes of the podcast are released on the third Friday of every month. Logo Images: Anatoly Tiplyashin / Romolo Tavani / stock.adobe.com.   

 Contact the Talking Under Water podcast editors by emailing [email protected]  engaging with them on Twitter @TUWpodcast. Join the conversation by commenting or using the hashtag #talkingunderwaterpod on social media.  

  

 

About the Author

Jeremy Wolfe

Jeremy Wolfe is a former Editor for Wastewater Digest.