Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 9/13/19

Farm state lawmakers and agriculture industry groups did a victory dance on Thursday as the EPA formally scrapped WOTUS, a move that fulfills a pledge Trump has made repeatedly. Now, the focus turns to the courts, where environmental interests and states are sure to fight back — and to how the EPA will replace WOTUS later this year, reports Pro Energy's Annie Snider.

"Repealing the WOTUS rule is a major win for American agriculture," said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in a statement. "The extreme overreach from the past Administration had government taking the productivity of the land people had worked for years."
Challenges are coming: Even before Thursday's announcement, environmental groups vowed to challenge the rollback, arguing it jeopardizes drinking water supplies for 117 million Americans.

California immediately threatened to sue the administration. "While we don't go looking for a fight, there's too much at stake for us to let this go," said Xavier Becerra, the state's attorney general.

A narrower rule in the works: The Trump administration, meanwhile, is crafting a new regulation it hopes to finish before the end of the year to replace WOTUS with a much narrower definition of the types of streams and wetlands that are subject to Clean Water Act permitting requirements — an effort some environmental groups see as an assault on federal water rules.

Fewer wetlands would be protected: By one early estimate from federal regulators, more than half the wetlands now protected would fall out of jurisdiction under the Trump administration's approach, which would eliminate nearly all federal protections for waterways in arid states like Arizona.