click here for the full story!
In his final weeks leading the agency, former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a memo reemphasizing the unique abundance of wetlands in Alaska and outlining how the EPA will manage them.
The joint memo, signed June 15 by Pruitt and Assistant Army Secretary for Civil Works R.D. James, replaces longstanding guidance in prior memos from 1992 and 1994 covering wetlands mitigation.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages Clean Water Act Section 404 wetlands fill permits under the direction of the EPA, which has ultimate say over if and how often-sensitive wetlands areas are developed.