Trump Sued by States for Ending Obama-Era Clean Water Rule
Trump Sued by States for Ending Obama-Era Clean Water Rule
(Bloomberg) -- More than a dozen U.S. states and New York City sued President Donald Trump’s administration for scrapping an Obama-era rule intended to expand federal protection of the nation’s waterways.
The states claim the Environmental Protection Agency, which issued a new rule without the protections, ignored current science on the connectivity of smaller or infrequently flowing bodies of water. The EPA under President Barack Obama had sought to bring those waterways under the protection of the Clean Water Act.
According to the lawsuit, filed Friday in Manhattan federal court, the EPA narrowed the landmark federal environmental law by applying an “outdated 30-year-old definition” of the waters it covers.
“Attorneys general across this nation will not stand by as the Trump Administration seeks to reverse decades of progress we’ve made in fighting water pollution,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.
The press office for the EPA said in a statement that the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
The EPA has previously said that the Obama administration overreached by expanding the definition of waterways, and its new rule gives more regulatory certainty to farmers, landowners and developers while continuing to preserve water quality.
The states contend the Obama-era rule was supported by 1,200 peer-reviewed scientific studies. Many of the same states previously sued in February 2018 when the Trump administration suspended the earlier rule.
To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Anthony Lin
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