Alabama moves to stop EPA water mandate on grounds it violates states’ rights

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September 10, 2015

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange (Photo: Facebook)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange (R) joined 17 other states Thursday in filing a motion for a nationwide stay on the EPA’s controversial expansion of the Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule, calling it a violation of states’ rights.

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.”

Last month U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson of North Dakota issued a temporary injunction against the rule, but the EPA maintains it only applied to those states in that particular motion. Alabama was not one of those states, so the EPA began enforcing the rules.

Now, Alabama and the other states listed in the motion, are hoping another judge can stop the EPA’s hand.

“The EPA WOTUS rule, which went into effect on August 28, 2015, should be halted nationwide while lawsuits filed by states, including Alabama, against the EPA rule are consolidated and reviewed by the federal courts,” said AG Strange in a press release.

“The Waters of the U.S. rule is an unprecedented effort to expand the EPA’s regulatory authority at the expense of state’s legal rights and the rights of property owners. In fact, it is so extreme that even the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – one of the agencies tasked with implementing the new regulation – has warned that it is ‘legally vulnerable’ to a court challenge.”

The motion was filed in the 6th Circuit. The other states to join are Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas.