Posted January 30, 2014
The American Farm Bureau Federation recently asked the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to reverse a September 2013 ruling
which upheld the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) total maximum
daily load for the Chesapeake Bay watershed, according to an AFBF new release
available here.
The court will decide whether EPA “exceeded its Clean
Water Act authority by mandating how nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment runoff
should be allocated among farms, construction and development activities, as
well as homeowners and towns throughout the 64,000 square mile Chesapeake Bay
watershed.”
In September, U.S. District Court Judge, Sylvia Rambo,
ruled that the EPA can enforce Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) nutrient
standards on six states and Washington D.C., which have waters flowing into the
Chesapeake Bay. The text of the opinion
is available here.
Judge Rambo granted the EPA’s motion for summary
judgment, stating that the plaintiffs failed to meet the “heavy burden of showing
that the issuance of the Bay TMDL was arbitrary and capricious, and that EPA’s
use of modeling and data bore no rational relationship to the realities they
purport to represent.” Judge Rambo said
that “the ecological and economic importance of the Chesapeake Bay is well
documented” and that the EPA’s actions are consistent with the Clean Water Act
and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
Judge Rambo continued, noting that as “the largest estuary in the United
States, the Chesapeake Bay is essential for the well being of many living
things.”
A recent post from this blog on the case is available here.
AFBF President Bob Stallman said, “This case involves
whether EPA can assume authority over land use and water quality policy
decisions that Congress specifically reserved for state and local levels of
government.” Stallman continued, “These
are uniquely local decisions that should be made by local governments…That is
why this power is specifically withheld from the EPA in the Clean Water Act.”
For more information on the Clean Water Act, please
visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
