NAHB Spotlights Much-Needed Improvements for WOTUS and Wetland Permitting Process

NAHB members from across the country delivered a united message yesterday to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) (collectively, the Agencies) on the need for regulatory reform regarding the federal definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act (CWA). 

The Agencies held a Listening Session for Industry and Agricultural Stakeholders almost a month after EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the Agencies would craft a new WOTUS definition that complies with the Supreme Court’s Sackett ruling while also pursuing opportunities to reduce red tape in the CWA Section 404 permitting process.

During the listening session, NAHB members and staff addressed several key topics related to the WOTUS definition as well as steps to improve the federal wetlands permitting process, including Nationwide Permits (NWPs):

• Vince Messerly, member of the Building Industry Association of Central Ohio and chairman of NAHB’s Environmental Issues Committee, discussed the need for a rulemaking and ephemeral vs. intermittent distinctions;
• Jim McCulley, member of the Home Builders Association of Delaware, discussed “continuous surface connection”;
• Howard Nelson, member of the Builders Association of South Florida, discussed WOTUS exclusions;
• Harold Phelps, member of the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City, discussed the status of jurisdictional ditches;
• Eugene Graf, member of the Southwest Montana Building Industry Association, discussed “relatively permanent” flow;
• Ross Ford, executive officer of the Utah Home Builders Association, highlighted how the WOTUS regulatory definition impacts federal, state and local stormwater permitting requirements upon developers and builders; and
• Evan Branosky, NAHB senior program manager of environmental policy, discussed efficiency in the CWA Section 404 permitting process, including raising acreage threshold limits for NWPs and meeting the timelines of consultation under the Endangered Species Act.

In addition to the WOTUS listening session, NAHB has been actively participating in other policy discussion on WOTUS:

• NAHB submitted comments on April 23, 2025, in response to the Agencies’ request for recommendations for a revised WOTUS regulatory definition. 
• NAHB participated in an industry coalition meeting on April 22, 2025, focused on the Corps’ reauthorization of NWPs. The industry coalition meeting included staff from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, Council of Environmental Quality, Corps, EPA, and Small Business Administration. NAHB staff stressed to the Agencies the importance of completing the required rulemaking process to reauthorize existing NWPs prior to their expiration on March 2026. 
• NAHB urged the Trump administration to make additional improvement to the NWPs, which NAHB Immediate Past Chairman Carl Harris testified to before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Specific improvements included:
  • Increasing the allowable wetland acreage disturbance from 0.5 acres to an acre or larger and establishing firm, and
  • Permitting review deadlines upon the Corps and EPA during the NWP process.

Taken together, these changes to WOTUS and the CWA Section 404 permitting program hold potential to accomplish long-sought improvements.

NAHB will continue to engage the leadership of EPA and the Corps as the Agencies seek to improve the CWA 404 permitting process and develop a proposed WOTUS regulatory definition under the CWA that complies with the Supreme Court’s Sackett decision.