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Nebraska joins Clean Water Act lawsuit

Nebraska is one of 13 states that have filed a lawsuit in district court in North Dakota over the new rule defining “Waters of the U.S.” under the Clean Water Act.

Justin Lavene, who is the agriculture, environment and natural resources bureau chief in the Nebraska attorney general’s office, says the rule greatly expands federal authority over the lands and waters of the state.

“That was the real concern, that we felt this was a little bit of a ‘power grab’, if you will, by the federal government—to basically assert more control over various farming practices and practices of private property owners and industry,” says Lavene

Lavene says the individual states are primarily responsible to regulate their own land and water resources.  He says it’s important that the states take a stand.

“The bigger issue for us is that the rule is not allowed to stand,” he says. “The U.S. Supreme Court has previously set some jurisdictional limits on what EPA and Corps can do under the Clean Water Act.  We just feel that they’ve gone beyond what the Supreme Court says they can do.”

The rule takes effect August 28th. Lavene says they haven’t decided whether to request a preliminary injunction to prevent the rule from going into effect.

AUDIO: Justine Lavene

Photo courtesy nwf.org