Court Delays WOTUS

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay Oct. 9 against the Waters of The United States rule, or WOTUS. The rule is on hold throughout the U.S. until the court can resolve pending legal questions.

Thirty states have sued the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers to stop the rule, which is also known as the Clean Water Rule.

The majority opinion for the three-judge panel wrote that plaintiffs demonstrated their claims could succeed. It also raised questions about the scientific justification for parts of the rule.

In the dozens of lawsuits filed against the rule, plaintiffs have argued that the federal government arbitrarily set distance limitations when determining adjacent waters, tributaries and "significant nexus,” providing no basis in science. Internal memos from the Army Corps showed personnel raised concerns about those distances being legally defensible.

In a related development, a federal judicial panel refused to consolidate the lawsuits against the EPA into one case to be heard in Washington, D.C. S