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Conservation groups file intent to sue over new water rule

The first steps in a legal challenge to the Trump Administration’s new water rule, to replace WOTUS, have been taken.

The groups, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, say they have filed a formal notice of intent to sue the administration for rolling back pollution protections for rivers, streams and wetlands, removing protections for hundreds of endangered species.

The groups say EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers violated the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act by not assessing potential environmental damages.

Ag groups hail the new Navigable Waters Protection Rule under the Clean Water Act because it reverses what they say the Waters of the U.S. rule would have done by regulating even ditches on farmland.