Idaho has joined a Texas lawsuit against the Biden administration’s waterway protections, claiming the rules are too vague and violate state sovereignty rights.
The lawsuit, originally filed in southern Texas’ federal courts Jan. 18, was amended to include Idaho on Monday. In it, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador contend that a new interpretation of a Clean Water Act rule is too vague, oversteps the bounds of federal authority and puts the liberties of states and private property owners at risk.
The federal rule was finalized by President Joe Biden’s administration in December. It defines which “waters of the United States” — often called “WOTUS” — qualify for protection under the Clean Water Act. The change repeals a Trump-era rule and expands some water pollution protections to thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways.
Emails obtained by The Associated Press through a public record request showed those officials expressing dismay that they weren’t notified that either lawsuit was in the works by the Idaho attorney general’s office. Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little, who had worked with many of the governors from the 24-state lawsuit in writing a letter to Biden opposing the WOTUS rule, only learned about the larger lawsuit when he saw a press release from another state, Little’s spokesperson said last week.
On Tuesday, Labrador’s spokeswoman Beth Cahill said the attorney general’s legal team decided the Texas suit was the better choice because having just two states listed as plaintiffs would allow Idaho’s interests to be “front-and-center.”
Cahill also noted Texas was the first to file suit against the Biden administration’s interpretation of the WOTUS rule, and that Texas has experience fighting an earlier version of the rule released under the Obama administration. She also said the federal judge handling the case has handled complex environmental cases in the past.
The states bringing both of the lawsuits brought in Texas and North Dakota make similar arguments against the rule, claiming that the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers overstepped their authority and jurisdiction by trying to encompass more waters than allowed in the Clean Water Act. Both lawsuits argue that the new rule is vague, arbitrary and capricious, and that it would unduly burden property owners, placing them at risk of criminal or civil penalties if they fail to correctly guess which waters on their land fall under the Clean Water Act.
Both lawsuits ask their respective courts to find the rule unlawful and vacate it.
The federal agencies have not yet responded to the lawsuits. The states in both federal cases have asked their respected judges to put the federal rules on hold while the lawsuits move forward.
