Environmentalists Join Legal Challenges To EPA CWA Section 401 Rule

摘要

Sierra Club, Columbia Riverkeeper and three Native American tribes are the latest groups to challenge EPA's Clean Water Act (CWA) section 401 rule limiting the scope of states' and some tribes' review of water quality impacts from federally permitted or licensed projects, arguing the policy is contrary to the language, purpose and intent of the CWA. "This unlawful rollback from the Trump administration seeks to trample the rights of Tribes and states to review and reject dirty fossil fuel projects that threaten their water. We will keep fighting until our government puts people before polluters and protects clean water for every community," Earthjustice staff attorney Moneen Nasmith said in a Sept. 1 statement announcing the new suit. Earthjustice is representing the plaintiffs in Suquamish Tribe, et al. v. Wheeler, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. One of the plaintiffs, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, has recognition from EPA for "treatment as a state," meaning it has authority under the CWA to make section 401 water quality certifications as a state would.