CBD Asks Court To Reverse EPA Approval Of Florida CWA Permit Program

摘要

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is urging a federal district court to find that EPA violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) when it allowed Florida to assume Clean Water Act (CWA) section 404 permitting authority, arguing the agency erred in setting an immediate effective date for the approval and by failing to codify the state program. The litigation CBD, et al. v. Regan, et al. challenges the Trump EPA's approval of Florida's assumption of federal dredge-and-fill permitting in many of its waters and claims the federal government violated numerous laws, including the APA, the CWA, the Endangered Species Act and the Rivers and Harbors Act. The approval made Florida only the third state to receive delegated section 404 permitting authority, following Michigan's assumption of the program in 1984 and New Jersey's assumption in 1994. Trump EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler called the approval a "roadmap" for other states that might want to assume 404 permitting.