The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wednesday released the final version of the Clean Water Rule that has become known as the Waters of the United States or WOTUS which they say protects clean water “while respecting agriculture.”

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy released an editorial commentary to farmers and ranchers explaining what they did in the final rule. “Feedback from the agricultural community led us to define tributaries more clearly,” they write. “We also got feedback that our proposed definition of ditches was confusing. We’re only interested in the ones that act like tributaries and could carry pollution downstream—so we changed the definition in the final rule to focus on tributaries.”

Regarding regulation of ditches, the rule “limits protection to ditches that are constructed out of streams or function like streams and can carry pollution downstream.” During a press conference outlining the new rule, Darcy said, “Only ditches that look, act and function like a tributary are covered.”

McCarthy stressed several times that the final rule includes no new permitting requirements and maintains all previous exemptions. “The rule does not add any requirements for agriculture and it maintains all the decade-long exemptions and exclusions for farming and forestry,” said the EPA chief, who named off several other things the rule does not do. “These are all important points that we have made crystal clear.”

Listen to McCarthy and Darcy announced the final rule here: Final WOTUS rule announcement