Item 3. Legal Proceedings.

We have included information about legal and environmental proceedings in Note 24 of our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements. That information is incorporated herein by reference.

We are also subject to the following legal and environmental proceedings in addition to those described in Note 24 of our Consolidated Financial Statements included in this report:

Waters of the United States. In June 2015, EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the “Corps”) jointly issued a final rule that proposed to clarify, but may actually expand, the scope of waters regulated under the federal Clean Water Act. The final rule (the “2015 Clean Water Rule”) became effective in August 2015, but has been challenged through numerous lawsuits. In October 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued an order staying the effectiveness of the final rule nationwide pending adjudication of substantive challenges to the rule. In early 2017, the U.S. President issued an Executive Order directing EPA and the Corps to publish a proposed rule rescinding or revising the new rule. In June 2017, EPA and the Corps issued a proposed rule that would rescind the 2015 Clean Water Rule and re-codify regulatory text that existed prior to enactment of the 2015 Clean Water Rule. In November 2017, EPA issued a rule notice proposing to extend the applicability date of the 2015 Clean Water Rule for two years from the date of final action on the proposed rule, to provide continuity and regulatory certainty while agencies proceed to consider potential changes to the 2015 Clean Water Rule.

In January 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held all challenges to the 2015 Clean Water Rule must be heard in federal district courts rather than in the federal courts of appeal, overruling a decision by the Sixth Circuit's Court of Appeals. With the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals no longer having jurisdiction, that court lifted its 2015 nationwide stay in February 2018. After the nationwide stay was lifted, a number of U.S. District Courts revived dormant litigation that challenged the 2015 Clean Water Rule. In June 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia entered an injunction against implementation of the 2015 Clean Water Rule covering 11 states, including Florida. As of September 2018, federal district courts have put the 2015 Clean Water Rule on hold in 28 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories.

On December 11, 2018, EPA and the Corps issued a proposed rule to replace the 2015 Clean Water Rule. The agencies’ stated interpretation for the proposed rule is to provide clarity, predictability and consistency so that the regulated community can better understand where the Clean Water Act applies and where it does not.

On September 12, 2019, EPA and the Corps jointly issued a final regulation that repeals the 2015 Clean Water Rule and restores the previous regulatory regime. This regulation reestablishes national consistency by returning all jurisdictions to the longstanding regulatory framework that existed prior to the 2015 Clean Water Rule. The final rule takes effect sixty (60) days after publication in the Federal Register. A challenge to this legislation is possible.

Repeal of the 2015 Clean Water Rule was the first step in a two-step rulemaking process to define the scope of “waters of the United States” that are regulated under the Clean Water Act. The second step is finalizing the regulation proposed in December 2018 that would define where federal jurisdiction begins and ends in accordance with the Clean Water Act and Supreme Court precedent.