Federal judge blocks implementation of Waters of the United States rule in 24 states

A federal judge in North Dakota has issued a preliminary injunction blocking the EPA from implementing its final rule redefining Waters of the United States in 24 Republican-led states.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares joined a coalition of 23 other Republican state attorneys general in the lawsuit against the EPA, asking a federal court to vacate the newly published final rule redefining Waters of the United States, which would establish protections for seasonal streams and wetlands

In his order, U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland wrote that the states who filed the suit would “expend unrecoverable resources complying with a rule unlikely to withstand judicial scrutiny.”

Opponents to the new rule have argued it would unfairly burden farmers and ranchers.

“The Biden Administration has a lengthy track record of using unelected agency bureaucrats to create overreaching rules, rather than the legislative process,” Miyares said. “This is yet another example of their desire to insert the federal government into every aspect of Virginians’ lives – by controlling small bodies of water on private property. This unlawful regulation will hurt Virginia’s agricultural and development industries, putting them at risk of criminal and civil penalties. I’m glad the Court applied commonsense to reject the Biden Administration’s latest overreach.”

One critic of the effort to block the new rule from taking effect said the court ruling sets a dangerous precedent that threatens the urgent restoration of federal clean water protections nationwide.

“Recent rollbacks of clean water protections left communities, businesses, and ecosystems in danger,” said Jim Murphy, director of legal advocacy for the National Wildlife Federation. “The EPA’s new rule is a common sense, science-based return to longstanding protections that will begin to restore fragile and degraded streams and wetlands across the nation. The court’s injunction of implementation of this rule introduces an unnecessary, dangerous delay to this urgent restoration process in dozens of states. It is critical that the rule is allowed to go into effect across the rest of the nation.”

The EPA said in a statement that it is reviewing the injunction, and that the agency believes the new rule was “the best” interpretation of the Clean Water Act.

“The agencies remain committed to establishing and implementing a durable definition of ‘waters of the United States’ informed by diverse perspectives,” the EPA said in the statement. “Our goal is to protect public health, the environment, and downstream communities while supporting economic opportunity, agriculture, and industries that depend on clean water.”