Citizen Suits Draw On EPA's CWA Jurisdiction Rule To Boost Enforcement

摘要

Recently filed citizen suits are drawing on language in the administration's controversial pending plan clarifying the reach of the Clean Water Act (CWA) over smaller, isolated waters to justify the litigation and provide the plaintiffs with a firmer legal basis for enforcing the law's provisions against allegedly unlawful discharges into such waters. For example, in Galveston Baykeeper v. Trendmaker Homes, et ah, filed May 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, environmentalists are citing hydrologic, biological and physical connections among numerous prairie potholes located in a housing development site and downstream bayous that are jurisdictional - language stemming from EPA's proposed rule and related study on waters' connectivity.