Agricultural News
Thirteen States Sue EPA and the Army Corps for Their Clean Water Rule- WOTUS
Mon, 29 Jun 2015 16:38:14 CDT
Thirteen states filed suit today against the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers over the EPA's Clean Water Rule, also called by many in the ag community as Waters of the United States- or WOTUS. The rule is set to take effect in latter part of summer.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in North Dakota. In the lawsuit, filed today, June 29, 2015, - the same day the rule was published in the Federal Register - the states contend the new definition of "Waters of the United States" violates provisions of the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the United States Constitution. The suit seeks to declare the rule unlawful and to prohibit the agencies from implementing it.
The states assert that the EPA's rule wrongly broadens federal authority by placing a majority of water and land resources management in the hands of the federal government. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster contends that Congress and the courts have repeatedly affirmed the states have primary responsibility for the protection of intrastate waters and land management. In the lawsuit, the states argue that the burdens created by the new EPA requirements on waters and lands are harmful to the states and will negatively affect farmers, developers, and landowners.
Koster said that he is concerned that the agencies' definition of "waters of the United States" goes far beyond what a reasonable person would consider to be a waterway. Koster noted, for example, that the new rule defines tributaries to include ponds, streams that flow only briefly during or after rainstorms, and channels that are usually dry. The definition extends to lands within a 100-year floodplain - even if they are dry 99 out of 100 years.
Missouri Cattlemen's Association President Janet Akers praised Koster for joining the fight against what she calls a "pervasive invasion of private property rights." And the Executive Vice President of the Missouri Cattlemen, Mike Deering, said the rule unilaterally strips private property rights and adds hundreds of thousands of stream miles and acres of land to federal jurisdiction. Deering stressed that the impact in Missouri will be "devastating." He said the rule will throw nearly 80,000 additional Missouri stream miles under the regulatory authority of EPA and the Corps.
Other states signing onto the suit besides North Dakota and Missouri are Nebraska and South Dakota; also, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming.
Click here for the text of the Lawsuit as entered into the Federal Court.
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