USEPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Asserts Personal Decision Making Over WOTUS Environmental Issues

According to an internal EPA memo dated March 30, 2018, “authority previously delegated to regional administrators to make final determinations of geographic jurisdiction shall be retained by the administrator.” This means that Pruitt personally, with the stroke of his pen, can exclude from environmental protection streams, lakes, ponds and wetlands previously requiring federal permits before they can be filled in or otherwise affected by dredging or other waterway operations.

Pruitt’s action personally taking final decision making power away from those officials with direct personal knowledge of field conditions in their locales means environmental decisions can be lobbied in Pruitt’s Washington D. C. office rather than analyzed and put into effect by officials on the ground.