As EPA ponders Clean Water Act, activists say business eclipsing environment

The long-term health of the ocean off the coast of Southern California, and the health of the region’s freshwater streams and rivers and lakes, soon could hinge on the Trump administration’s definition of a single word: ditch.

The Environmental Protection Agency is in the midst of sorting out which of the “waters of the United States,” or WOTUS – the creeks, streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, wetlands, oceans, and, yes, in a few cases, ditches – should still be protected from pollution by the Clean Water Act of 1972.