Senate committee criticises WOTUS rule

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has released a report on the WOTUS rule, criticising the process and the final regulation jointly produced by the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers. The WOTUS rule radically expands federal jurisdiction over waters that have little or no connection to flowing streams and rivers.

Following up on multiple committee hearings since 2014, the report emphasises that the rule is a bid for increased jurisdiction through regulation and highlights the many areas of contention between what EPA and Corps officials say the rule will do and what will actually happen if it is implemented.

The report is called “From Preventing Pollution of Navigable and Interstate Waters to Regulating Farm Fields, Puddles and Dry Land: A Senate Report on the Expansion of Jurisdiction Claimed by the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Water Act.” While it does focus on the impacts of WOTUS on the agriculture industry, the arguments support what NSSGA has said both on Capitol Hill and in its current litigation; that this rule is an unprecedented and unreasonable jurisdictional increase that will cost millions and is neither legally nor scientifically defensible.

A nationwide stay of the rule is in effect, but it could be years before this rule is taken up by the Supreme Court. A full copy of the report is available here.

Adapted from press release by Rebecca Bowden

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/the-americas/27092016/senate-committee-criticises-wotus-rule-339/