A Win for the Environment and Private Property Rights
A U.S. District Court recently ruled in favor of a Preliminary Injunction for Florida and ten other states regarding the validity of the 2006 Clean Water Rule commonly referred to as the “Waters of the United States Rule” or WOTUS. The Judge ruled that the states would likely succeed on the merits of their claim that the Rule violates the Clean Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency violated the Administrative Procedures Act when creating the Rule.
The WOTUS Rule has been tied up in the federal courts with multiple lawsuits and most recently, the current administration pushed back the applicability date to February 6, 2020, to allow the court system time to address the lawsuits. Florida Farm Bureau Federation has been opposed to the Rule because the rule vastly extends federal authority on private property without any substantial positive impact on water quality.
