Environmentalists are challenging in federal court, the Trump administration’s rewrite of the Obama Era WOTUS rule which is the Navigable Waters Protection Rule. Attorneys for the EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers are asking the court to throw that lawsuit out. South Dakota Farm Bureau President Scott VanderWal says his group backs the NWPR and says the government attorneys are making the right move.
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Chief Environmental Counsel Scott Yager says the new rule is based on sound science and the environmentalists charge that the WOTUS was based on sound science isn’t true.
VanderWal says while the environmentalists are concerned the new NWPR leaves waters unprotected, the new rule actually provides the needed protections.
The Government attorneys argue that the environmentalists lack standing in their case and they haven’t been able to show the NWPR causes any harm. Yager says that’s very difficult to prove and they don’t have a very good case anyway.
Both the EPA and US Army Corps of Engineers have filed a motion for summary judgement in the case asking the court to maintain the Navigable Waters Protection Rule.
