Federal judge orders Trump to reinstate Obama's Waters of the US rule
A federal judge issued a nationwide injunction Thursday against the Trump administration for delaying the Obama-era Waters of the United States rule, dealing a setback to a key piece of President Trump's deregulatory agenda.
The decision by the U.S. District Court in South Carolina means that the so-called Clean Water Rule is again operative in 26 states where district courts have not halted the regulation.
Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt signed a finalized regulation in February delaying the Waters of the U.S. rule until 2020 to allow the agency to go through a process of rewriting a more modest version of it.
Opponents said EPA avoided the customary 30-day waiting period between the rule's finalization and its effective date, circumventing the Administrative Procedures Act, or APA. "As administrations change, so do regulatory priorities," said Judge David Norton, an appointee of George H.W. Bush, in his ruling.
"The ruling is problematic because it creates a patchwork of states where the WOTUS rule applies and others where it does not," said Peter Tolsdorf, the association's deputy general counsel.
The Obama administration rule, published in June 2015, intended to clarify which waters and wetlands are protected by the Clean Water Act and are subject to federal regulation by the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers.
The EPA recently sent its draft replacement rule to the White House for review, and it should be made public soon.
Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Rulemaking
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