Remember “WOTUS”? It stood for the “Waters of the U.S.” and was one of the Obama administration’s more odious power grabs. It was so bad that the Supreme Court stayed its implementation while it was being litigated in lower courts.

The basic purpose of WOTUS was to give the federal government more control over small waterways, such as streams and lakes, in theory to “protect” them. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, be very afraid of the federal government claiming to want to help. WOTUS was just one of many power grabs perpetrated by the Obama administration in the name of “protecting” the environment.

Scott Pruitt, Trump’s EPA administrator, had said previously said one of his main goals was to rescind WOTUS, and he seems to be living up to his word.

“We are taking significant action to return power to the states and provide regulatory certainty to our nation’s farmers and businesses,” Mr. Pruitt said in a statement. “This is the first step in the two-step process to redefine ‘waters of the U.S.’ and we are committed to moving through this re-evaluation to quickly provide regulatory certainty, in a way that is thoughtful, transparent and collaborative with other agencies and the public.”

Control over these small waterways will return to the authorities who oversaw them prior to WOTUS.