If Sacketts appeal, DOJ could back regs Trump wants to scrap

摘要

A district court's ruling in a Clean Water Act enforcement case could leave the Trump administration in an awkward position. U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho Judge Edward Lodge found last week that EPA correctly interpreted 1987 regulations when it issued an enforcement order against Michael and Chantell Sackett for illegally filling wetlands in 2007 (Greenwire, April 3). President Trump has moved to roll back those regulations. So if the Sacketts make good on their promise to appeal the ruling, the Trump administration could be forced to defend in court regulations they say misinterpret the Clean Water Act's intent. The Trump administration's Waters of the U.S., or WOTUS, rule proposed in December would change how the Clean Water Act applies to wetlands separated from larger waterways by man-made barriers. It clearly states that "when wetlands are physically separated from jurisdictional waters by upland or by dikes, barriers, or similar structures and also lack a direct hydrologic surface connection to jurisdictional waters, those wetlands are not adjacent," and would not be protected by the Clean Water Act. The proposal, generally, would not protect any wetlands that do not have a relatively permanent" surface water connection to larger waterways. That's a departure from regulations in place since 1987 that protect wetlands separated from larger waterways by roads or man-made barriers if they have surface or shallow subsurface water connections, and if the two are "reasonably close so as to support a science-based inference of an ecological interconnection."