October 20, 2021
Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court asking it to clarifiy, once and for all, what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can regulate under the Clean Water Act and what it cannot.
In what has been described as “one of the longest-running legal battles in the history of the Clean Water Act,” the EPA asserteed jurisdiction over the Sacketts less than one-acre piece of private property, claiming it contained a wetland, stopped home construction, and threatened fines of up to $75,000 per day. For nearly a decade, the Sacketts and their lawyers, Pacific Legal Foundation, have been in court battling with the EPA over the interpretation of the Clean Water Act and the definition of “Waters of the United States.”
As SLF has explained to the Supreme Court in its 2015 lawsuit challenged the EPA’s overreach,
The WOTUS Rule is one of the most egregious overreaches during the Obama years and, in fact, one of the biggest overreaches in American history. For years, agriculture, industry and property owners have asked for a clear rule on what constitutes ‘covered’ land – as you know, the cases are all over the place in terms of what’s covered.So, in response, the EPA and Army Corps gave us this 4,000 foot rule, which covers nearly the entire U.S. That can’t possibly be the right answer under the Clean Water Act. So, we’ve attacked it.