Professor Dave Keiser helps develop model that identifies the jurisdictional reach of the Clean Water Act
Professor Dave Keiser coauthored a paper published in Science that seeks to define, for the first time, which waters fall under the jurisdictional reach of the Clean Water Act.
The 1972 Clean Water Act protects the “waters of the United States” but does not precisely define which streams and wetlands this phrase covers, leaving it to presidential administrations, regulators and courts to decide. As a result, the exact coverage of Clean Water Act rules is difficult to estimate.
After this study’s data, the 2023 Biden White House rule expanded Clean Water Act jurisdiction and the Supreme Court’s 2023 Sackett decision then contracted it. Once Sackett is fully implemented, this machine learning methodology can clarify its scope.