Friday, February 5, 2021 It seems like yesterday, but it was actually last summer when the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers published the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, effective June 22, 2020 (the "Rule"). The Rule's publication completed the two-step process to repeal and replace the 2015 Clean Water Rule. The Rule replaced the Clean Water Rule's definition of "waters of the United States" with one that provides an arguably smaller scope of protections for these waters. As expected, several states (including North Carolina) raised legal challenges to the Rule during the second half of 2020. Colorado, however, was the only state that obtained a stay of the Rule.