TROUBLED WATERS: STATES & ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS CHALLENGE EPA OVER CLEAN WATER DELAY

The Trump administration has formally discontinued a major Obama-era clean water regulation. Last week, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced the suspension of the Clean Water Rule for two years, while the administration works to repeal and replace the rule with their own, industry-friendly version.

The Waters of the United States (WOTUS), the rule was designed to limit pollution in about 60 percent of the nation’s bodies of water, as put forth by the E.P.A. and the Army Corps of Engineers in 2015. It expanded the protection of headwaters, streams, and 20 million acres of wetlands including large bodies of water, such as the Chesapeake Bay, Puget Sound and the Mississippi River under the 1972 Clean Water Act. It held farmers and real estate developers accountable for runoff pollution in streams running through their property. because these tributaries can carry fertilizer discharges and other kinds of contamination from agriculture and fossil fuel extraction into the larger bodies of water.

Under fierce criticism, over 100 parties have since challenged water regulation including business groups and some Republican officials, arguing that it was an overstep of government power, prompting President Trump to take aim against the regulation, calling it “one of the worst examples of federal regulation.”
Shortly after taking office, Trump issued an executive order directing the EPA and the Department of the Army to rescind and replace it with less burdensome regulatory requirements on how farmers, ranchers, real estate developers and industry must safeguard the streams and tributaries.

Last week, Pruitt took a major step toward completing that task, by filing legal documents requiring to suspend the water regulation rule for two years. The rule was set to be implemented in the coming weeks, following a Supreme Court decision that said legal challenges to the regulation should be decided in federal district courts. That ruling will result in the lifting of a stay issued by an appeals court blocking the 2015 rule from going into effect.

“Today, E.P.A. is taking action to reduce confusion and provide certainty to America’s farmers and ranchers,” Pruitt said in a statement. “The 2015 WOTUS rule developed by the Obama administration will not be applicable for the next two years, while we work through the process of providing long-term regulatory certainty across all 50 states about what waters are subject to federal regulation.”

Republicans cheered the administration’s move saying the regulation was an infringement on property rights for farmers, ranchers.
“The Obama administration’s outrageous Waters of the United States rule would have put backyard ponds, puddles, and farm fields under Washington’s control,” said Senator John Barrasso, the Wyoming Republican who is chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in an interview with the New York Times, “Today’s action will give Wyoming’s ranchers, farmers, small businesses, and communities clarity."

Dozens of states and environmentalists groups have rallied to fight the move. This week, attorneys general from states including New York, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for delaying enforcement of the EPA rule meant to protect waterways saying it wrongly applied to lands far from traditionally “navigable waters.”

"The Trump Administration’s suspension of the Clean Water Rule is clearly illegal, threatening New York’s decades-long efforts to ensure our residents have access to safe, healthy water," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is leading the coalition, "We will fight back against this reckless rollback and the Trump administration’s continued assault on our nation’s core public health and environmental protections.”

In conjunction with the 11 states, Natural Resources Defense Council and National Wildlife Federation also filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York to prevent the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers from delaying implementation of the regulations.

“The Clean Water Rule protects the bodies of water that feed the drinking water supply for one in three Americans,” said Jon Devine, NRDC senior attorney told The New York Times, “E.P.A. Administrator Scott Pruitt is racing the clock to deny protections for our public health and safety. It’s grossly irresponsible, and illegal."
Environmentalists predicted the rewrite will let polluters off the hook and say the delay is an obvious attempt to make it easier for corporate and agricultural interests to pollute waterways by allowing them to sidestep stiffer regulations.

“This reckless decision by the Trump Administration to suspend the implementation of the Clean Water Rule will put the drinking water for one in three Americans in danger, all so Trump and Scott Pruitt continue to pander to polluters intent on spewing their noxious waste into America’s waterways without accountability." Dalal Aboulhosn, Deputy Legislative Director for Land and Water for the Sierra Club said in a statement released by the environmental organization.

American Rivers, President Bob Irvin also critical of the White House's move says the move undercut water protections against dredging and filling will make innumerable small streams and wetlands that are essential for drinking water supplies, flood protection, and fish and wildlife habitat vulnerable to unregulated pollution.

"Healthy rivers and streams are vital to our communities and economy, and the health of millions of Americans. President Trump and EPA Administrator Pruitt want to throw away carefully crafted safeguards that were based on strong economic arguments, sound science and broad public support," stated Irvin.

EPA's Pruitt has been targeting WOTUS for years, even before he was in Washington; as Oklahoma attorney general, in 2015 where he lead a multi-state lawsuit against the rule, is expected to roll out his own version diminished of the rules this spring and finalize new rules this year.