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EPA official says no to WOTUS redo

wotus ruleIt’s expected that EPA’s Clean Water Act Rule—also known as Waters of the U.S. or WOTUS—will be tied up in the court system for years.

Many analysts predict the issue will eventually end up in the Supreme Court.

Ag groups and some members of Congress have called on the EPA to voluntarily scrap the rule and start over with more input from stakeholders. But Ron Carleton, who advises EPA administrator Gina McCarthy on agricultural policy, tells Brownfield that’s not going to happen.

“No, at this point I don’t think we’re going to be hitting a restart button and starting over,” Carleton says. “The process has been years in the making and I think, at this point, we have a rule out there and we’ll see what the courts think about it.”

A recent effort in the U.S. Senate to force a redo on WOTUS fell short of the votes needed to advance, although that body did pass a resolution of disapproval.

Carleton says EPA is prepared for a lengthy legal battle.

“At this point, the next steps are simply to let everybody have their day in court and determine how it works out,” he says.

EPA’s implementation of WOTUS is currently on hold while the courts determine jurisdiction over the many lawsuits filed against the rule.

AUDIO: Ron Carleton

  • Very arrogant to think he has the right to take American citizen’s property rights away.
    If the courts rule that he can then you have no rights in this country anymore. This must be stopped because its not about keeping the water clean its about taking away your right to what you own even the very rain that falls on your property will make it his property. You will be forced to live as he says you must even to how much water you can use to grow your own food. How much you can use to drink or bath or wash your clothes. This is how Nazi Germany started out. Passing laws that controlled personal resources and they left us with the concept of animal rights which is how one controls your food supply.

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