On March 25, EPA sent a proposed Clean Water Act Section 401 Water Quality Certification rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for interagency review. Once cleared by OMB, the proposal will be published in the Federal Register for public review and comment. According to the OMB dashboard, EPA considers this proposed rule not to be economically significant. EPA previously issued guidance on implementing Section 401 amid the administration change and the vacatur of the 2020 certification rule, signaling that a rewrite might lead to an enormous amount of flexibility provided to certifying authorities at the expense of transparency and regulatory certainty.

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Dave Ross is a partner in the firm’s Environmental and Natural Resources practice. He has more than 20 years of experience across a broad spectrum of challenging environmental and natural resources issues and is recognized as one of the leading experts on water…

Dave Ross is a partner in the firm’s Environmental and Natural Resources practice. He has more than 20 years of experience across a broad spectrum of challenging environmental and natural resources issues and is recognized as one of the leading experts on water law and policy in the United States. Dave specializes in providing cutting edge legal advice at the intersection of law, policy, and science, and has worked in local, state, and federal government in addition to serving as an environmental consultant and attorney in private practice. Having worked as both a prosecutor and defense attorney, a government attorney and private practitioner, and an environmental consultant and policy advisor, Dave brings a unique perspective to difficult business questions and problems. He has testified before Congress, argued in court, given hundreds of speeches, and is equally adept at providing strategic counseling in the boardroom and in the field.