Industry Resumes Challenge To Traditionally Navigable' Determination

摘要

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has re-started its legal challenge to EPA's controversial determination that two sections of an intermittently-flowing Arizona river are "traditionally navigable waters (TNW)" and thus regulated under the Clean Water Act (CWA) — one year after a key appellate court dismissed the challenge for lack of standing. If the court rules on the merits of the case, NAHB's challenge could lead to new limits on the agency's ability to claim jurisdiction over marginal waterbodies. NAHB, et al. v. EPA, et al, filed Jan. 18 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that EPA failed to follow the Administrative Procedure Act's requirements for notice and comment when it determined that two reaches of the Santa Cruz River are TNW, and that it disregarded its own rules and key Supreme Court precedent in reaching that conclusion.