published Feb 6, 2018 12:49:12 PM, by Erik Larson
(Bloomberg) —

Nearly a dozen states sued the Trump administration for suspending a 2015 rule that was billed as a long-overdue update to the definition of lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands designed to improve protection under the Clean Water Act of 1972.
The attorneys general from 10 states and the District of Columbia accused the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of violating federal law by delaying the Obama administration’s “Clean Water Rule” for two years, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan. President Donald Trump has promised to slash regulations to help businesses and the economy.

“The Trump Administration’s suspension of the Clean Water Rule is clearly illegal, threatening New York’s decades-long efforts to ensure our residents have access to safe, healthy water,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is leading the state coalition, said in a statement.

The agencies acted without considering the body of scientific evidence that was developed in support of the rule, the suit claims. The EPA, led by longtime agency critic Scott Pruitt, has often questioned scientific consensus on environmental matters, including the human causes of climate change.

The EPA’s press office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The other attorneys general in the case hail from California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Attorneys general from more than a dozen states, including Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana, had sued the Obama administration to stop the rule, saying it wrongly applied to lands far from traditionally “navigable waters.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net Paul Cox, Heather Smith

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