The U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee has approved a Clean Water Act (CWA) regulatory reform package (H.R. 3989) that benefits golf course management by:    

Eliminating the duplicative National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for those chemical spaying activities already in accordance with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). 

Excluding hard-to-define ephemeral and groundwater features from federal CWA jurisdiction. This applies to our work on WOTUS (Waters of the United States). 

Increasing state assumption of Section 404 CWA permits to streamline the process and encourage additional states to take the lead in issuing these permits.

The reform package aims to reform the CWA permitting process. The larger package consists of 15 bills aimed at: streamlining permitting processes, reducing regulatory burdens, increasing transparency and consistency, preventing frivolous lawsuits and accelerating infrastructure development.

GCSAA has written a letter of support to the Committee, which you can read here. We expect H.R. 3989 to head to the House floor for a vote and will update after that happens.