Army Corps Blocks Utah Subdivision by Classifying Small Ditch as Protected Wetland
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers withdrew a Clean Water Act permit for a Utah subdivision, deeming a drainage ditch a regulated wetland despite the Supreme Court's Sackett limits.
A proposed 265-home subdivision near Salt Lake City, called the Old Farm Subdivision, was stopped after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers withdrew its Clean Water Act permit on April 8, 2026, classifying a small drainage ditch and a nearby 2.74-acre damp area as protected wetlands. The parcel lies about nine miles from the Great Salt Lake and lacks any hydraulic link to it, placing it outside the scope of the Supreme Court’s 2023 Sackett decision, which restricts federal authority to “relatively permanent, standing, or continuously flowing” waters.
Developers Lew Swain and Brent Baily, through Willard Land, argue the Corps is overreaching and have enlisted the Pacific Legal Foundation to sue in federal court. The EPA has meanwhile posted a proposed rule clarifying that regulated wetlands must have a continuous surface connection to a covered water body, with comments due by Oct. 9. The dispute underscores ongoing tension between federal regulators and private landowners over the interpretation of the Clean Water Act.
