Permitting Council Invests $32 Million in New Tool to Speed Clean Water Act Reviews
Contact Information
Permitting Council Press Office (media@permitting.gov)
WASHINGTON (October 14, 2026) –American infrastructure projects could break ground months sooner under a $32 million investment announced today by the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council). The investment will support the development of the Non-WOTUS Explorer, a mapping tool for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to quickly confirm that a site does not contain waters regulated under the Clean Water Act.
"This is the largest technology investment the Permitting Council has ever made, and it takes aim at a bottleneck that holds up thousands of projects every year," said Emily Domenech, Permitting Council Executive Director. "With the Non-WOTUS Explorer, Americans building on dry land will get answers faster and break ground sooner, allowing Army Corps experts to focus on the complex projects that need them most. This commonsense innovation is how we deliver on President Trump's commitment to build."
“The Army has dominated the land better than any entity in human history and this investment demonstrates that the Army is extending its historic modernization effort to every corner of our critical mandate,” said Adam Telle, Acting Secretary of the Army.
“This investment advances the ‘Building Infrastructure, Not Paperwork’ initiative by cutting red tape and delivering the clear and consistent jurisdictional determinations and permitting decisions Americans need,” said D. Lee Forsgren, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works. “The Non-WOTUS Explorer will provide vastly improved regulatory clarity, accelerate project delivery, and ensure Army Corps of Engineers experts focus their time on the most complex, high-priority infrastructure challenges. I thank President Trump for his leadership, Secretary of War Hegseth, and acting Secretary of the Army Telle for their commitment to modernizing government, strengthening accountability, and accelerating delivery of vital infrastructure for the American people.”
Many landowners ask the Corps to confirm whether a site contains or does not contain "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) regulated under the Clean Water Act before moving their projects forward. Existing maps and datasets often aren't precise enough to rule out federal jurisdiction with confidence, so Corps staff frequently have to visit sites in person, which takes time and specialized expertise.
The Non-WOTUS Explorer will address that constraint head-on by combining available satellite imagery, aerial photography, LiDAR elevation scans, streamflow and hydrology data, and other public, commercial and federal datasets and applying determination support tools to that data to map where water is and how it connects across the landscape to help the Corps confirm areas that are not WOTUS.
The tool will be focused on identifying land that is clearly not WOTUS, so the Corps can provide that decision to landowners quickly. Every result from the tool will come with a plain-language written explanation linking it to the Clean Water Act and current WOTUS rules to inform the Corps’ ultimate decision on jurisdiction. This will let landowners know exactly how the Corps reached its decision. Corps districts will keep final authority over every determination.
Once in use, the tool is estimated to:
Save approximately $5.5 million each year
Clear 4,000 jurisdictional determinations from the USACE regulatory queue each year
Let projects start months faster on sites with no regulated waters
Save nearly 48,000 hours of specialized USACE expertise annually, so those experts can focus on complex, high-priority infrastructure projects
USACE will demonstrate a working prototype focused on federal lands in the contiguous United States within 6 months, followed by a nationwide version within 18 months. Total investment is $32,060,000 across two phases. The Permitting Council has previously invested more than $26 million in permitting technology improvements across federal agencies during the Trump Administration.
About the Permitting Council and FAST-41
Established in 2015 by Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41), the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council) is a federal agency charged with improving the transparency and predictability of the federal environmental review and authorization process for certain critical infrastructure projects. The Permitting Council is composed of the Permitting Council Executive Director, who serves as the Council Chair; 13 federal agency Council members; and the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. The Office of the Executive Director coordinates federal environmental reviews and authorizations for projects that seek and qualify for FAST-41 coverage, which are in turn entitled to comprehensive permitting timetables and transparent, collaborative management of those timetables on the Federal Permitting Dashboard.
Learn more about the Permitting Council at permitting.gov.
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Last Updated: Wednesday, October 14, 2026