Attorney General Jackley Announces Lawsuit on Biden Administration WOTUS Rule
PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley says South Dakota has joined 23 other states in filing a lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s “Waters of the United States” rules.
“This is a federal government attempt to exceed its authority granted by Congress as provided in the Clean Water Act,” said Attorney General Jackley. “This rule will drastically impact how South Dakota manages its waterways.”
The states’ lawsuit is filed against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The states contend that the rule, signed by President Biden on his first day in office in 2021, would redefine “navigable waters” to include ponds, certain streams, ditches, and other bodies of water that would be placed under the Clean Water Act as defined by the EPA and the Corps of Engineers.
“As it states in the lawsuit, this rule would require farmers, developers and other property owners to get permission from the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers to use these water ways in most ways,” said Attorney General Jackley. “That places an undue burden on South Dakotans who would face federal government punishment for even the slightest misuse.”
Other states involved in the lawsuit are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
“We appreciate the involvement of other states on this issue, and we hope for a positive consideration from the courts,” said Attorney General Jackley.
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This Federal Democrat Woke ruling keeps coming up when Democrats are in power in the hope that enough liberal justices will someday be in power to allow the total obfuscation of States ruling their own waterways.
Thank you AG Jackley !!!
I’m not so sure the Federal Government is so in the wrong here. Over half the state is classified as “semi-arid” and clean water and unpolluted ground water should be high on our list of priorities. I’ll wait and check where the Issac Walton League stands on this lawsuit. The Ikes have been very consistent in their views about Water Conservation in my view.
the trouble is the inclusion of “ephemeral streams”
That can include any location like a ditch or gutter that has annual spring run-off in it
Or a weltand in a field that can be drained to the roadway ditch, then it can go to the lake and expand the lake. Then we can now put buoys in the lake and make some of that lake private. If that lake is in Day county, then the whole lake can be considered private. All the tax dollars and resources for stocking the lake and providing access to the lake is now given to the landowners.
Yeah, I don’t see how this could be a problem at all.
Everyone always presumes the worst possible intent, least planning and maximum possible repercussions when words drainage, pollution, or progress are used. WOTUS is another attempt to try to make sure noone does anything without big brother’s permisson and oversight . We aren’t quite all the way to communism yet, but keep trying. Enabling an additional layer of unelected bureaucracy to have veto power over individual landowner decisions is the worst government overreach. Almost every governmental entity on all levels now has a “drainage board” to already get permitting from and enforce compliance. Adding a layer of enforcement from thousands of miles away is not progress.