Opponents of the Obama administration’s Clean Water Rule claimed that it encouraged massive infringements on state authority by the federal government, according to briefs filed in federal court on Tuesday.
Writing on behalf of more than two dozen states and several other groups, Ohio attorney general Michael DeWine told the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is considering a challenge to the rule, that the case is essentially about who has authority to regulate land and water well out of range of any navigable waterway.
“The [Clean Water Act], like the United States Constitution, reserves that authority to the states. Yet, in the rule at issue here, the agencies have asserted federal authority over many of those local resources,” DeWine continued. “The rule destroys the careful balance between federal and state authority that Congress struck in the CWA and that the Constitution mandates.”
The Rule, finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers last year, aims to clarify which bodies of water fall under the Clean Water Act.
Critics, however, believe that the Rule will muddy current attempts at enforcement of the decades-old law. GOP members have claimed the rule would affect people merely trying to dig ditches and spray pesticides on their property. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, along with other Republicans on his panel, released a report last Thursday claiming that the Rule was affected by political interference. The attemped to overturn the rule in January, and DeWine, himself, filed a suit last year.
But supporters continue to defend the law.
Maryland representative Elijah Cummings responded to Chaffetz in a statement last week that “nonpartisan, independent auditors at [the Government Accountability Office] have already concluded that the EPA and Army Corps complied with applicable laws and regulations, and the top official at the Army signed off on the final rule.”
The EPA also noted in a press release that “the agencies look forward to vigorously defending the merits of the Clean Water Rule, which the agencies continue to believe is fully consistent with the law and based on the best available peer-reviewed science.”
The Sixth Circuit already paused any implementation last year, thus preventing the agencies from enforcing the Rule while it runs through court.
