Western states win injunction against ‘Waters of the United States’ rule

Courts in West Virginia and Georgia ruled earlier in the week that they did not have jurisdiction to rule on the lawsuits. The block is only enforced in the 13 states that requested its injunction, according to the Obama administration.

The EPA said in a statement that it is prepared to enforce the newly released rules in most states and “is considering next steps in the litigation”. For all other states, the rule goes into effect August 28.

The judge’s decision is a major hindrance for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers, who were already beginning their plans last Friday to begin the enforcement of the Waters of the United States Rule. The other parties to that lawsuit are: North Dakota, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota, Wyoming, the New Mexico Environment Department, and the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer. (Some states are suing in other federal courts).

Government agencies now have a better idea of what water the EPA has authority over, Lee said, and that means there should be fewer situations when it’s hard to determine which agency regulates it.

She says citizens need only look at his support for the land exchange that gave an global mining company rights to mine copper from Oak Flat, a sacred area to Native-American tribes in the region and popular recreation area, or his opposition to the mineral withdrawal around the Grand Canyon that put a prohibition on any new uranium mines in the area for 20 years.

Coming up on WGEM News at Ten, we’ll talk with the local farm bureau and lawmakers about the rules effects.

“This may be the great case study that we’ve been looking for”, Eddington said. “Clean water is important to all of us”. The rule extends federal regulation-and prohibitions on land use-to “tributaries”, which it defines as anything that directly or indirectly “contributes flow” to an actually navigable body of water or wetland and “is characterized by the presence of the physical indicators of a bed and banks and an ordinary high water mark”. The judge said that among other things, the rule would require “jurisdictional studies” of every proposed natural gas, oil or water pipeline project in North Dakota, a state which is at the center of an energy exploration boom.