First hearing set for challenge to new WOTUS rule by major private landowners
April 5 is the date of the first hearing for the many parties involved in a federal court challenge to a final rule posted this past December from EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers defining the d“waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under the 1972 Clean Water Act.
Private landowners represented by several organizations filed a 42-page complaint on Jan. 18 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Galveston. It says the Environmental protection Agency and the Army Corps over-stepped their authority and should have waited for a Supreme Court ruling on the issue.
The plaintiffs include:
- American Farm Bureau Federation,
- American Petroleum Institute,
- American Road And Transportation Builders
- Association, Associated General
- Contractors Of America,
- Leading Builders Of America,
- Matagorda County Farm Bureau,
- National Association Of Home Builders
- National Association Of Realtors
- National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
- National Corn Growers Association,
- National Mining Association,
- National Multifamily