Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt filed another lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday, this time over the definition of water.
Pruitt’s lawsuit, filed in Tulsa federal court, claims that a new rule promulgated June 29 illegally redefined the “waters of the United States” in a move that he described as executive overreach and flatly contrary to the will of Congress.
Pruitt claims that the EPA’s broad redefinition of long-standing regulatory jurisdiction places virtually all land and water under an untenable regulatory burden, according to a statement released by his office.
“Respect for private property rights have allowed our nation to thrive, but with the recently finalized rule, farmers, ranchers, developers, industry and individual property owners will now be subject to the unpredictable, unsound, and often byzantine regulatory regime of the EPA,” Pruitt said in the statement. “I, and many other local, state and national leaders across the country, made clear to the EPA our concerns and opposition to redefining the ‘Waters of the U.S.’
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“However, the EPA’s brazen effort to stifle private property rights has left Oklahoma with few options to deter the harm that its rule will do.”
The EPA says the new rule provides “greater clarity and certainty to farmers” and claims that it does not add an economic burden on agriculture.
“The Clean Water rule ensures that waters protected under the Clean Water Act are more precisely defined, more predictably determined, and easier for businesses and industry to understand,” the agency states on its website.
“Activities like planting, harvesting, and moving livestock have long been exempt from Clean Water Act regulation, and the Clean Water Rule doesn’t change that,” the EPA’s statement continues.
The lawsuit, assigned to U.S. District Judge Claire Eagan, asks for a declaration that the rule is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and illegal.
The lawsuit also asks for declarations that the rule is unconstitutional and that the agency exceeded its authority when it enacted the rule, which becomes effective Aug. 28.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, along with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary of the Army for civil works.
This marks the second lawsuit in as many weeks Pruitt has filed against the EPA in Tulsa federal court. Last week, he asked a federal judge to halt the EPA’s plan to enact new rules designed to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants.
Pruitt is also a party to several previous lawsuits challenging the EPA’s regulatory limits.
