EPA Defends Trump Approval Of Florida's Section 404 Permitting Program

摘要

EPA is defending the Trump administration's decision to allow Florida to begin issuing Clean Water Act (CWA) section 404 dredge-and-fill permits, arguing the agency properly followed federal administrative procedures and urging a federal district court to reject environmentalists' arguments to the contrary. "The jurisdictional issues and procedural claims before the Court are unusual but their resolution requires only the application of well-settled legal principles to undisputed fact," EPA tells the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), et al. v. Regan, et al. CBD maintains EPA violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) when it allowed Florida to assume 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. But EPA in a recent brief counters that CBD's APA claims fail on the merits and argues the plaintiffs lack standing to bring one of their claims. The Trump EPA's approval of Florida's assumption of federal dredge-and-fill permitting marked only the third time the agency has agreed a state can take over some section 404 permitting decisions. Michigan assumed 404 permitting in 1984, and New Jersey did so in 1994. Trump EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler called Florida's approval a "roadmap" for other states that might want to assume 404 permitting.