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Wisconsin joins lawsuit to fight new water rule

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//July 1, 2015//

Wisconsin joins lawsuit to fight new water rule

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//July 1, 2015//

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Wisconsin has joined eight other states in a lawsuit protesting a new rule from the EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The new rule clarifies which of the nation’s bodies of water are protected by the EPA’s Clean Water Act, the federal law that governs water pollution in the U.S. The rule takes effect Aug. 28.

According to the summary published Tuesday in the Federal Register, the rule clarifies what waterways and bodies of water are covered under the Clean Water Act. The clarifications include that the Clean Water Act has jurisdiction over more than just navigable waters, in line with previous U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

The rule also includes that the Clean Water Act covers waters that need protection in order to restore or maintain them.

The new rule does not create any new permitting rules or affect any permitting rules and exemptions under the Clean Water Act.

The rule would negatively affect homeowners, farmers and others by making it more difficult to obtain permits for routine tasks such as digging ditches or building fences, according to a news release from Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, who announced Wednesday that the state would be joining the lawsuit.

According to the complaint filed Tuesday by Wisconsin and eight other states in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, the final rule put out by the EPA usurps states’ duty to protect and maintain intrastate waterways and bodies of water. The complaint asks the court to issue a preliminary injunction, declare the rule unlawful and send the rule back to the EPA and Army Corps for revision.

The rule, according to the complaint, is unlawful because it violates the Clean Water Act and states’ constitutional rights to sovereignty.

In 2014, the U.S. House approved a bill to block the Obama administration from implementing the rule.

Efforts to clarify the Clean Water Act were spurred by two U.S. Supreme Court Cases — one in 2006 and one in 2011 that muddied the understanding of what bodies of water were covered.

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