US Supreme Court Narrows the Definition of “Waters of the United States” with Respect to Wetlands for Purposes of Federal Jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act

On May 25, 2023, the US Supreme Court, in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, ___ US_ (2023) (“Sackett”) held that “waters of the United States” for purposes of federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) refer “only to geographical features that are described in ordinary parlance as “streams, oceans, rivers and lakes’ and to adjacent wetlands that are ‘indistinguishable’ from those bodies of water due to a ‘continuous surface connection’” a test first articulated in the plurality opinion in Rapanos v. United States, 547 US 715 (2006).