In November 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers announced they’d come up with a proposed revision for the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS), They published the proposal in December 2021, with a promise to finalize it by the end of 2022. That they did, and on 30 December a final version was issued. It is scheduled to go into effect in 60 days – around 1 March 2023. Defining WOTUS has been a long and winding path through many federal courts, and this new rule might be upended by yet another pending case. The Obama Administration had issued new WOTUS rules in 2015. At issue was the rule’s scope under the Clean Water Act’s jurisdiction...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.