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Will POTUS Derail WOTUS? Courts Won't!

This week, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to enjoin the new Navigable Waters Protection Rule, a gem in the crown that was Trump's EPA, making the rule federally enforceable nationwide.  A link to the decision is attached. 

 It remains to be seen what the Biden Administration will do in the space. The Trump Administration repealed the Obama era 2015 rule, and replaced it with a rule legal scholars have called more contextually true to the jurisdictional limits of the Federal Clean Water Act. The most recent action resulted from the State of Colorado complaining that state was not prepared to regulate nonpoint discharges to non jurisdictional waters (which of course were ALWAYS under Colorado's jurisdiction!).

The limits of federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act has been a subject of dispute for decades, and may be argued well after this cowboy has his horses in the barn.  But we will watch it for you and can assist you in permitting decisions where doubt prevails.

These are consolidated appeals about what are the “waters of the United States.” That statutory phrase—a key component of the Clean Water Act—has been the subject of ongoing debate for nearly five decades. Yet the meaning of the phrase, which the Act does not define, remains elusive and unpredictable.

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agribusiness, environmental