Clean Water Current

NACWA hosted a joint Legal Affairs Committee meeting and Legal Hot Topics Webinar this week entitled “Waters of the United States” – Where Are We Now On WOTUS? 

NACWA would like to thank our Legal Affairs Committee Co-Chairs Hilary Meltzer, Chief of Environmental Law Division in the New York City Department of Law, and Emily Jackson, General Counsel for Metro Water Recovery, who led members through a brief review of NACWA’s litigation engagement this year to date and updated members on the upcoming 2021 Clean Water Law & Enforcement Seminar in Charleston, S.C.

An expert panel then provided an analysis of where things stand in the nationwide litigation surrounding the seemingly endless rewrites of the Clean Water Act definition of “waters of the United States,” (WOTUS) and offered their insights into the Biden Administration’s potential paths forward. 

NACWA also wants to give a huge thank you to our panelists – Jeff Kray, Partner at NACWA Legal Affiliate Marten Law; Rees Alexander, Senior Associate at NACWA Legal Affiliate Squire Patton Boggs; and Julia Anastasio, Executive Director & General Counsel of the Association of Clean Water Administrators. 

The panel presentations outlining the lead up to the major WOTUS rewrites under the Obama and Trump administrations, the morass of litigation that has ensued, and what we might expect to see going forward are available here.

For questions concerning the webinar or NACWA’s Legal Affairs Committee, please contact Amanda Aspatore.