Sackett v. EPA is in the Supreme Court of the United States today as a test of the authority of the agency to regulate wetland protection when 'significant nexus' or a scientific connection is established to downstream waters of the United States.
Earthjustice attorney, Stuart Gillespie is concerned the Court will dial back protections, revert the rules to the bad old days during the Trump years and erase consistency from one administration to the next. "The court's move and the views expressed by some justices at oral argument, raise further concerns about the court's willingness to disregard traditional principles of judicial restraint in service of a deregulatory, pro-industry, and anti-environment agenda," he said.
The final rule includes eight CWA exclusions as part of the text. Most notably, prior-converted croplands are exempt, and EPA adopted USDA's definition. The EPA said wetlands converted to croplands prior to Dec. 23, 1985, are excluded from regulation. The remaining seven exclusions written in the new rule include waste treatment systems, ditches, artificially irrigated areas, artificial lakes or ponds, artificial reflecting pools, or swimming pools, water-filled depressions and swales and erosional features. The standard was a key reason why the 2015 WOTUS rule faced numerous legal challenges. It was eventually replaced by the Trump administration's Navigable Waters Protection Rule. During the 2015 rulemaking, a map of the state of Iowa was circulated by members of Congress showing the entire state as jurisdictional because of the significant-nexus test adopted in the new final rule.[Significant Nexus Now WOTUS Law of Land]In Iowa voluntary buffer strips and other conservation practices have simply failed desertifying parts of the state and causing the Raccoon River to be named one of the most endangered waterways in the US.
But, Earth haters in Congress wanted the US Environmental Protection Agency to wait on new Clean Water Act legislation in anticipation that a Trump-packed SCOTUS will reverse 2015 Obama-era environmental protections for a majority of American citizens and enable the corporatocracy to pollute at will.
Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said the new rule is a federal "overreach.""The Biden administration's untimely and out-of-touch new waters of the U.S. rule is ambiguous and expansive," she said in a statement. "Our farmers and business owners are suffering from regulatory whiplash and continue to bear the brunt of the left's radical climate agenda." [Ag Groups: WOTUS Complicates Farming]The number of acres in 'agroecosystems' has tripled since the 1940s but poor ag practices like tiling have made soils unable to absorb rainfall creating toxic runoff and flooding.
The Army Corps of Engineers will authorize up to $40 million on coastal and river restoration demonstration projects on the lower Mississippi River meant to help reduce the hypoxia zone in the Gulf of Mexico. [WRDA Bill Close to Final Passage]Yes, Republican welfare farmers are the real ecoterrorists who hate subsidies unless they benefit from them.
ip photo: a farmstead crumbles on the divide between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.
This was a 2014 map showing how much of Iowa would be subject to #WOTUS jurisdiction, re: significant nexus determinations. pic.twitter.com/aWriLDqax6
— TODDNEELEY (@DTNeeley) December 30, 2022
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