MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a nationwide stay on the EPA’s controversial “Waters of the United States” rule Friday morning, granting the request of Alabama and 17 other states which had filed to stop implementation of the the rule while it continues to be litigated in federal court.
“The WOTUS rule is an unprecedented power grab by the EPA that practically extends to every landowner’s property and is so far-reaching and overly broad that even the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has expressed serious concerns about its ability to be enforced,” said Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange. “Alabama and the rest of the country are now given protection from the controversial new rule while it is being fought by our coalition of states in federal court.”
The new rule seeks to extend the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers’ regulatory reach to an indefinite number of small bodies of water, including roadside ditches, temporary streams or “any waters located within the 100-year floodplain of a traditional navigable water.”
Strange, and other opponents of the rule have called it a violation of states’ rights that could require farmers and other land owners to seek EPA permission before doing anything as simple as irrigating their crops or digging a small pond.
The rule went into effect on August 28th, but was immediately stayed for 13 states who had originally petitioned in federal court. Today’s decision extends that stay to the rest of the United States.
“A stay temporarily silences the whirlwind of confusion that springs from uncertainty about the requirements of the new rule and whether they will survive legal testing,” the court said in its order.
“We conclude that petitioners have demonstrated a substantial possibility of success on the merits of their claims,” they added, “…the sheer breadth of the ripple effects caused by the Rule’s definitional changes counsels strongly in favor of maintaining the status quo for the time being.”
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— Elizabeth BeShears (@LizEBeesh) January 21, 2015
