Federal Court Strikes Down Waters of U.S. Rule

(HOUSTON, TX) The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas granted Texas’ motion for summary judgment and found the 2015 Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule to be invalid. The same court issued a preliminary injunction in September, but this latest ruling finds that the rule violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act and must go back to the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corp of Engineers, where it originated. The two agencies have already been working on a replacement. U.S. District Judge George C. Hanks Jr. found that when the EPA abandoned the Final rule and switched to a distance-based model rather than continuing to use ecological and hydrologic criteria, the government deviated in a way that interested parties could not have reasonably anticipated. Either way, the rule is no longer in force as EPA and the Corps work to rewrite a rule. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says he wants to see it written in such a way that a landowner can simply look at the land, look at the rule, and make a determination.