EPA Says Adverse CWA 'Jurisdiction' Ruling Applies Only To Corps Orders

摘要

EPA is arguing that a recent appellate ruling that allowed pre-enforcement review of agencies' Clean Water Act "jurisdictional" determinations for waterbodies should apply only to such findings by the Army Corps of Engineers and not those issued by EPA, the latest bid by the administration to limit the scope of the adverse decision. In a May 1 filing in a federal district court challenge to an EPA jurisdictional finding, the Department of Justice (DOJ) on EPA's behalf says the unanimous April 10 ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in Hawkes Co., et al. v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, centered on a challenge to a Corps jurisdictional determination (JD) and not an EPA JD. While the court said the Corps' JD was judicially reviewable, the ruling was silent on EPA JDs, and DOJ says this.distinguishes Hawkes from the ongoing district court case.