EPA water chief Radhika Fox is acknowledging there are "huge" challenges in reaching the Biden administration's goal of crafting a "durable" definition of waters of the United States (WOTUS) to ensure watershed protection but says it is possible if stakeholders are willing "to get uncomfortable to find that common ground." Fox's comments came during a roundtable discussion at the virtual fall meeting of the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) last week where state regulators and former EPA officials weighed in on how to build durable watershed policy and emphasized the need to find middle ground. The discussion comes as the Biden administration has launched a controversial process aimed at crafting a "durable" WOTUS definition to avoid continuing the pendulum swings that have occurred during the Obama, Trump and the current administrations, though former EPA officials have questioned whether a middle-ground approach is possible.
展开▼
