Oil Pollution Prevention; Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure Rule; Revisions to the Regulatory Definition of “Navigable Waters”

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is promulgating a final rule to amend a Clean Water Act (CWA) section 311 regulation that defines the term "navigable waters." On July 17, 2002, EPA promulgated a final rule which included revisions to the definition of "navigable waters" in the Spill Prevention, Countermeasure and Control (SPCC) regulation. In this action, EPA is announcing the vacatur of the July 17, 2002 revisions to the definition of "navigable waters" in accordance with an order, issued by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (D.D.C.) in American Petroleum Institute v. Johnson, 571 F.Supp.2d 165 (D.D.C. 2008), invalidating those revisions. The court decision also restored the regulatory definition of "navigable waters" promulgated by EPA in 1973; consequently, we are amending the definition of "navigable waters" in part 112 to comply with that decision.