NYS A.G. Leads Mulitstate Lawsuit to Protect Clean Water

(NEW YORK) NY Attorney General Schneiderman, leading a coalition of 11 Attorneys General, sued the Trump Administration for suspending the 2015 “Clean Water Rule” – a federal regulation designed to ensure the nation’s lakes, rivers, streams, and wetlands receive proper protection under the federal Clean Water Act. With its “Suspension Rule,” the Administration replaces the Clean Water Rule with the confusing, nearly 40-year-old regulations that had been in place prior to the 2015 rule.

The Attorneys General charge that, in suspending the Clean Water Rule, the Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) violated federal law by taking action “with inadequate public notice, insufficient record support, and outside their statutory authority.”

The Suspension Rule, which the EPA and the Army Corps published today, suspends the Clean Water Rule for two years and replaces it with regulations dating back to at least 1980. It was these outdated regulations that had led to many years of confusing and inconsistent interpretations of “waters of the United States” by agencies and federal courts, and resulted in inadequate water quality protections.

The lawsuit is led by Attorney General Schneiderman and filed by the 11 Attorneys General of New York, California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.