EPA Now Sued for Not Going Far Enough on Water Rule

"WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been getting battered by industry and farm groups – as well as half the states in the nation – for allegedly going too far in its recent clean water rule.

Now the agency is getting sued for not going far enough.

A coalition of conservation groups on Wednesday filed suit in federal court, indicating that the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pulled punches in the recently finalized “Waters of the United States” rule. The suit was filed in a federal appeals court based in San Francisco.

The rule, in development for more than a year, was published last month. States and industry groups immediately pounced, calling it a massive overreach by federal regulators – one that will make private property owners “subject to the unpredictable, unsound and often Byzantine regulatory regime of the EPA,” in the words of one attorney general."

Chris Adams reports for the McClatchy Washington Bureau July 22, 2015.

SEE ALSO:

"Green Groups Challenge Obama Water Rule in Court" (The Hill)