The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could be telegraphing its regulatory plan for its Waters of the United States (WOTUS) proposal, and much of Iowa could be right in its bull’s-eye, according to an analysis by the American Farm Bureau Fed­eration (AFBF).

The EPA appears ready to make the "prairie potholes" a categorical water of the United States, Farm Bureau says. The potholes are isolated intrastate wetlands that are mostly found in the Upper Midwest, including large swaths of Iowa.

If the EPA does make that designation, "it would subject owners of prairie potholes to an unnecessary, punishing and patently duplicative blanket of...