Lek Kadeli
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday released the scientific report that Administrator Gina McCarthy has said will be vital in final rulemaking on the Waters of the United States rule that EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are writing.

The date of the release of the rule is uncertain, and Republicans in Congress and many farm leaders have said it should be withdrawn.

The availability of the final report titled, “Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters: A Review and Synthesis of the Scientific Evidence” was noted in the Federal Register.

While farmers have expressed fears that the report and the WOTUS rule could lead to on-farm regulation, Lek Kadeli, acting assistant administrator in the EPA Office of Research and Development, appealed to the general public about the importance of the issue in a blog post Thursday.

“You may have noticed along a favorite hiking trail that some streams only appear after rainfall, or maybe you’ve seen wetlands far from the nearest river,” Kadeli wrote.

“You probably didn’t think about the importance of those smaller water bodies. But a new scientific report we’re releasing today shows that small streams and wetlands play an important role in the health of larger downstream waterways like rivers and lakes.”

▪ Environmental Protection Agency — Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters: A Review and Synthesis of the Scientific Evidence
▪ — Fact Sheet