Description: Challenge to the revised definition of "waters of the United States" under the Clean Water Act.
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Puget Soundkeeper Alliance v. EPA
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 09/02/2022 Order Download Matter to remain stayed until January 20, 2023. 04/04/2022 Order Download Matter to remain stayed until September 1, 2022. 09/29/2021 Order Download Matter to remain stayed until April 1, 2022. 06/22/2020 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Two More Lawsuits Raise Climate Change Issue in New “Waters of the United States” Definition. On June 22, 2020, two additional lawsuits challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and EPA’s revised definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) contended that the adoption of the definition violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to consider climate change. The new lawsuits, this one in the Western District of Washington and the other in the District of Arizona, alleged that the agencies’ “decision to narrow the scope of waters protected under the Clean Water Act and to base the final rule on the permanence of surface flow in a typical year without considering the effects of climate change is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.” At least two other lawsuits challenging the WOTUS rule—California v. Wheeler and Conservation Law Foundation v. EPA—have also challenged this aspect of the definition.