Sixth Circuit Stays Implementation Of EPA’s “Clean Water Rule”
Earlier today, the Sixth Circuit stayed the implementation of the EPA’s “Clean Water rule,” which purported “through increased use of bright-line boundaries” to make “the process of identifying waters protected by the Clean Water Act easier to understand, more predictable and consistent with the law and peer reviewed science, while protecting the streams and wetlands that form the foundation of our nation’s water resources.” The court is currently reviewing its subject-matter jurisdiction over the dispute, the court decided to stay implementation of the rule until it resolved the jurisdictional question. It also determined that the “status quo” was the pre-Rule regime of federal-state collaboration that had been in place before the EPA’s action. The dissenting judge cautioned that the court had no authority to stay implementation of the rule until it determined whether it properly had jurisdiction.
