[title size=”1″ content_align=”left” style_type=”underline solid” sep_color=”#000000″ margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” class=”” id=””]Army Corps of Engineers’ memos undermine WOTUS rule, House panel chairman says[/title][fullwidth background_color=”” background_image=”” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding_top=”20″ padding_bottom=”20″ padding_left=”0″ padding_right=”0″ hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” menu_anchor=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]Tuesday, July 28th 2015
Internal memos that the Army Corps of Engineers turned over to a Senate committee undermines the scientific and legal basis for the new rule that re-defines the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act, the panel’s chairman says. In a letter Monday to the assistant secretary of the Army who oversees the Corps, Jo-Ellen Darcy, Senate Environment and Public Workers Chairman Jim Inhofe said that the documents show the “rule is lacking factual, technical and legal support.” Inhofe, R-Okla., also told Darcy it appears that the Environmental Protection Agency didn’t provide the draft final rule to the Corps of Engineers until April 3 when it was submitted for interagency review. The rule, which defines what streams, ditches, wetlands and other areas are subject to regulation as “waters of the United States” (WOTUS), is supposed to be a joint product of the EPA and Corps, which share regulatory responsibility under the law. The rule is set to take effect in August. Inhofe’s eight-page letter quotes select passages from documents, including two staff memos sent in April and May to the Army’s deputy commanding general for civil and emergency operations, Maj. Gen. John Peabody. Darcy asked that the committee not make the documents public. A passage from an April 24 memo asserted that the rule would give federal officials jurisdiction “over many thousands of miles of dry washes and arroyos in the desert Southwest, even though those ephemeral dry wastes, arroyos, etc., carry water infrequently and sometimes in small quantities.” An appendix to the April memo also seems to raise questions about provisions of the rule defining what ditches would be regulated as tributaries of rivers: EPA said in a statement Monday that the agencies “worked closely and carefully to make sure that all concerns surrounding the Clean Water Rule were addressed before finalization.” A series of lawsuits have been filed against the rule by 30 states and a coalition of industry groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, American Petroleum Institute, National Association of Home Builders and the National Association of Manufacturers. Provisions in pending appropriations bills would block the administration from implementing the rule during fiscal 2016.[/fusion_text][/fullwidth]