Company: NINE
Filing Date: 2025-03-06
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001532286-25-000008
Chunk: 24

Company: Nine Energy Service, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-06
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 24
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 in recent years. In 2015, the EPA and the Corps issued a rule defining the scope of federal jurisdiction over WOTUS, which never took effect before being replaced by the Navigable Waters Protection Rule (the “NWPR”) in 2020. A coalition of states and cities, environmental groups, and agricultural groups challenged the NWPR, which was vacated by a federal district court in August 2021. In January 2023, the EPA and the Corps issued a final rule that based the definition of WOTUS on the pre-2015 definition. Separately, in May 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. EPA narrowed federal jurisdiction over wetlands to “traditional navigable waters” and wetlands or other waters that have a “continuous surface connection” with, or are otherwise indistinguishable from, traditional navigable waters. In September 2023, the EPA and the Corps published a direct-to-final rule that conforms the regulatory definition of WOTUS to the Supreme Court’s May 2023 decision in Sackett. However, roughly half of the states and other plaintiffs are continuing to challenge the September 2023 rule, and the EPA and the Corps are using the pre-2015 definition of WOTUS in these states while litigation continues. As a result, substantial uncertainty exists with respect to future implementation of the September 2023 rule and the scope of Clean Water Act jurisdiction generally. In addition, in an April 2020 decision defining the scope of the Clean Water Act that was issued days after the NWPR was published, the U.S. Supreme Court held that, in certain cases, discharges from a point source to a WOTUS through groundwater require a permit if the discharge is the “functional equivalent” of a direct discharge. The Court rejected the EPA and the Corps’ assertion that groundwater should be totally excluded from the Clean Water Act. In November 2023, the EPA issued draft guidance describing the functional equivalent analysis and the information that should be used to determine which discharges through groundwater may require a permit. However, in January 2025, President Trump issued executive orders directing (i) the EPA and the Corps to identify planned or potential actions that could be subject to emergency treatment under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and (ii) the heads of all federal agencies to identify and begin the processes to suspend, revise, or rescind all agency actions, including all existing regulations and guidance documents, that are und