EPA’s approach to improving water quality far overreaches the agency’s authority under the Clean Water Act, Ellen Steen, American Farm Bureau Federation general counsel, said in Monday’s Newsline. Steen explained why AFBF and other organizations recently asked the courts to rule on the agency’s Total Maximum Daily Load regulation for the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
“The Clean Water Act specifically reserves to the states the power to decide how to achieve water quality standards,” Steen said. “It doesn’t authorize EPA to tell the states how to achieve water quality standards. This is an EPA power grab and what it is requiring of the states is going to impose billions, not millions, but billions of dollars in cost on the state and local governments throughout this six state area.”
She pointed out that while EPA’s rule targets parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia and the District of Columbia, the implications go well beyond the Chesapeake Bay region.
If the agency is successful, it would set the precedent that EPA has the authority to “tell the states what they need to do, how aggressive they need to be and when they have to achieve those standards, regardless of cost,” Steen said.
AFBF vs. EPA was filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on Jan. 27.
