Challenges Mount Against Water Rule

The tally of challenges continue to rise against the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Clean Water Rule that the agencies drafted together.

Twenty-eight states have filed suit seeking relief from the rule, which becomes effective August 28. The American Farm Bureau, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, and at least 10 other agencies and associations also have collectively asked a federal court to vacate the rule.

The Farm Bureau complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Texas, claims the new rule grants the EPA and Army Corp “broad control over land use far beyond what Congress authorized in the Clean Water Act.”

The suit argues that the EPA and Army Corp want to “exert jurisdiction over a staggering range of dry land and water features—whether large or small, permanent, intermittent or ephemeral, flowing or stagnant, natural or man-made, interstate or intrastate.”

The suit goes on to say that the “opaque and unwieldy” rule “leaves the identification of jurisdictional waters so vague and uncertain that Plaintiffs and their members cannot determine whether and when the most basic activities undertaken on their land will subject them to drastic criminal and civil penalties …”

The U.S. Senate and House have passed bills that would make the EPA rewrite the new rule with input from state and local governments. Both chambers have included provisions in fiscal year 2016 appropriations bills to stop funding for implementation. S