PHOENIX – Attorney General Mark Brnovich joined a 25-state coalition in support of permanently rescinding language used in the 2015 Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule.
The coalition filed its letter as part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ongoing review of the WOTUS rule. It encourages the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to preserve the states’ role in protecting water resources by fully eliminating the Obama-era rule and enforcing pre-existing rules until more concise language can be adopted.
“These Obama-era regulations are nothing more than federal overreach under the guise of environmental protection,” said Attorney General Mark Brnovich. “It is critical that we return power to the states and provide regulatory certainty to ranchers and land owners in Arizona and across the country.”
The regulation, if implemented, would have taken jurisdiction over natural resources from states and put it in the hands of federal agencies. This included almost any body of water, such as isolated streams, hundred-year floodplains, and roadside ditches.
Previously, the states were also successful in winning a nationwide stay that blocked enforcement of the rule and proved crucial in providing time for a new administration to reconsider the rule.
Arizona signed the letter with Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
Read a copy of the letter.