(COLUMBUS, Ohio)—Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has registered his support for permanently rescinding language used in the 2015 Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. DeWine filed two letters with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, one solely on behalf of Ohio and a second as part of a 25-state coalition, as part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s ongoing review of the WOTUS rule.
The letters encourage the EPA and the Corps to preserve the states’ role in protecting water resources by fully eliminating the Obama-era rule and enforcing pre-existing rules until more concise language can be adopted. The Obama-era regulation, if implemented, would have conflicted with the Clean Water Act by asserting federal jurisdiction even over many usually dry lands. In 2015, in connection with lawsuits brought by Ohio and many other States and recognizing that the Obama-era rule was likely unlawful , the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit halted its implementation nationwide pending the outcome of litigation.
“The unlawful and now stayed 2015 rule needs to be rescinded,” Attorney General DeWine wrote in his letter. “The Agencies improperly expanded their own jurisdiction under the 2015 WOTUS Rule, to the detriment of the States, and placed onerous permitting requirements on landowners who had no expectation that their properties contained ‘waters of the United States.’”
In addition to Ohio, states that signed the coalition letter include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
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