BISMARCK, N.D. – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released an amended Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule yesterday in response to the Supreme Court ruling in Sackett v. EPA.
The EPA removed the significant nexus standard, slightly amended its definition of “adjacent” and removed “interstate wetlands” from the rule.
“While the amended rule corrects a few things, it does not nearly go far enough to fix key problems and it continues to be a blatant overreach of authority by the EPA,” Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said. “I applaud the attorney general’s continuing lawsuit with a coalition of 24 states against the EPA to invalidate this unworkable rule.”
In addition to the coalition of 24 states that includes North Dakota, federal courts have halted the rule in Texas, Idaho and Kentucky. These 27 states are operating under the 1986 WOTUS rule. The amended WOTUS rule will only apply to the remaining 23 states.