Mississippi joins states suing over new EPA water rule

National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Chairman Tom Woods released a statement late last week to explain why the organization has joined a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers over the Waters of the USA rule that the agency is implementing.

Texas, Louisiana and Indiana also are involved in the lawsuit.

Gov. Mike Pence said in a statement Monday that he’s “pleased” Indiana will join the suit.

“And so if we lose federal authority over these waters, there is no state mechanism in place to make sure that those waters are protected under the New Mexico Water Quality Act”, she said. “They can not be allowed to continue to expand federal authority over more aspects of Hoosiers’ lives”. This means that negligible waterways can now be regulated by the industry. “This is yet another example of the Obama administration overreaching its authority and unilaterally attempting to concentrate power in the hands of federal bureaucrats”.

The term would now include small bodies of water, including streams, ponds, and drainage ditches.

He said farms that discharge water or wastewater might have to obtain federal permits or face fines under the new regulation.

Zoeller is joining the lawsuit filed against the EPA and the Army Corps by attorneys general of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

“The new rule has the potential of shifting primary regulatory responsibility over traditional state lands and waters from the states to the federal government”.

Zoeller said his office, representing the state of Indiana, will join the amended complaint that will be filed soon. While the EPA touts the Clean Water Rule as “vital to our health, communities and economy”, DeWine and other critics raise the specter of federalism and decry the rule for ceding the feds almost limitless jurisdiction over waterways in each individual state.

Max Bomber is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.