ISSUES POLICY
Working to Permanently Scrap EPA Water Rule
By Pete Bonds, president, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association T
HE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA) CONTINUES to wage war against ranchers and private property
owners by trying to implement its fl awed Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. The rule redefi nes the term “navigable” under
WOTUS to allow the EPA to regulate all surface water on private lands. Implementation of the rule would require private property owners to meet stringent and costly EPA regulations, making it more diffi cult for ranchers to continue running successful cattle operations. The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers As-
sociation (TSCRA), many of its members, and others submitted more than 1 million comments voicing their concerns and opposing the rule. The EPA disregarded these serious concerns and stressed that the agency would move forward with implementation of the rule. On May 27, the EPA announced the fi nal rule and
said it would become effective Aug. 28. While this came as bad news to us, leaders across the nation worked to prevent the rule from immediately taking effect. We’ve had some notable victories. A preliminary injunction was issued against the
federal rule by a U.S. District Court in North Dakota on Aug. 27, the day before it was to take effect. This order applied to only the 13 states involved in the lawsuit. Texas and Oklahoma were not included, but TSCRA was glad to know preliminary relief was granted for part of the country. On Oct. 9, a bigger milestone was achieved when
tscra.org
the Cincinnati-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a nationwide stay on the rule. Petitioners in the Sixth Circuit concluded the rule is illegal because treatment of tributaries, “adjacent waters,” and waters having a “signifi cant nexus” to navigable waters are “at odds” with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The court also said that implementation of the rule would cause “irreparable harm” to the states. Many federal district courts, including one in Galves-
ton, are proceeding with lawsuits aimed at scrapping the rule. Lawyers for the president’s administration were seeking to consolidate these legal challenges, but the U.S. Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation refused to grant their request. The 7-judge panel said “centralization will not serve the convenience of the parties.” TSCRA is glad these court cases will move forward separately to provide more ammunition against the EPA water rule. Congress has introduced and partially passed leg-
islation that would prohibit the EPA from implement- ing the rule. Most recently the U.S. Senate passed a joint resolution of disapproval for the WOTUS rule. This orders the EPA to withdraw it and prevents the agency from drafting a similar rule in the future. This resolution still needs to be passed in the U.S. House of Representatives before making it to the president’s desk. The president has said he will veto any bill that
would block or change the WOTUS rule. While the judicial stay has temporarily blocked the rule, we must continue working to get the rule thrown out for good.
December 2015 The Cattleman 103
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