AG’s Office Urges Congress to Prevent EPA Control of U.S. Waters
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – Attorney General Sean D. Reyes joined 23 attorneys general on a letter to Congress to share their states’ experiences and perspectives on the implementation of the Waters of the United States after the U.S. Supreme Court’s monumental opinion in Sackett v. EPA. The letter precedes a hearing by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on “Waters of the United States Implementation Post-Sackett Decision: Experiences and Perspectives.” This letter was sent to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee, as well as the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.
In May 2023, the Supreme Court issued an opinion in Sackett v. EPA, giving a properly constrained definition to the term Waters of the United States (WOTUS) in the Clean Water Act. Though the nation’s high court rejected the federal government’s overly broad and burdensome regulation, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has refused to conform its actions to the Supreme Court’s ruling, maintaining a number of policies that continue to threaten local control and constitutional property rights. Put simply, EPA refuses to accept that a farm field with no connection to navigable waters cannot be regulated as Waters of the United States.
As the States write, “Because the Agencies continue to construe ‘waters of the United States’ inconsistently with Sackett, 27 States have filed suit, with most having already secured preliminary injunctions… Responsible agencies would have stayed the present rule, re-opened notice and comment, and revised their approach entirely. The Agencies instead dug in. It’s now left to Congress to dig them out.”
Joining Utah and West Virginia on the letter were the States of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming.
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