Sunflower State News

U.S. Senators Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) have introduced the Clarifying Legal Exclusions Around Regulated (CLEAR) Waters Act, which aims to specify which water features are exempt from federal regulation under the Clean Water Act. The legislation would exclude groundwater, farm ponds, irrigation ditches, and puddles from being regulated as “waters of the United States” (WOTUS), a designation that has generated debate among farmers, ranchers, and landowners.

Senator Marshall said, “I’m proud to join my colleagues in introducing the CLEAR Waters Act, and I thank Senator Ernst for her leadership on this important legislation. By codifying EPA’s longstanding waste treatment system exemption and ensuring groundwater and ephemeral features are not navigable waters under WOTUS, we are streamlining compliance standards and reducing regulatory burdens – while maintaining strong environmental protections.”

Senator Ernst commented on the potential impact of current regulations: “If you try and navigate a wastewater treatment pool, you will be up a creek without a paddle. WOTUS regulatory uncertainty has threatened the livelihoods of hardworking Iowa farmers, small businesses, and landowners for far too long, and I was thrilled to join EPA Administrator Zeldin in announcing that the Trump administration is revising this misguided and harmful regulatory expansion. After leading this fight for a decade, I am making it CLEAR that the federal government has no business regulating cooling ponds, municipal treatment plants, groundwater, and streams that only flow after rainfall under WOTUS.”

The CLEAR Waters Act would also build upon the Supreme Court’s 2023 Sackett v. EPA decision. In that ruling, the court narrowed what qualifies as federally regulated water by limiting which wetlands fall under federal oversight.

The full text of the bill is available online.