North Dakota Court Issues Preliminary Injunction Against Biden Waters Rule

A federal North Dakota court on Wednesday issued a preliminary injunction against the Biden administration’s proposed Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule in 24 states whose Republican attorneys general sued over it.

In the order, Judge Daniel L. Hovland of the District of North Dakota, a former President George W. Bush appointee, ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has “arguably acted beyond [its] statutory authority” under the Clean Water Act with the rule. Hovland wrote that there are “serious questions” regarding the 2023 rule’s interpretation of “interstate waters” to include those not connected to navigable waterways.

Hovland also took issue with the 2023 rule’s treatment of tributaries, writing that under the latest rule, “a watercourse can qualify as a tributary so long as it makes its way, ‘directly or indirectly,’ to a traditional navigable water, territorial sea, or interstate water by any wet or dry waterway, such as wetlands or ditches.”

Read the source article at thehill.com