News

Attorney says WOTUS far from finished

An attorney says last week’s court ruling on the Waters of the U.S. rule proves agriculture’s battle with the regulation isn’t over.  Leah Ziemba with Michael Best & Friedrich, a Wisconsin law firm, says, “As the Trump administration works on that final rule, there’s certainly going to be more challenges both in these interim injunctions as well as when that final rule is released which is planned for 2020.”

Ziemba says District Judge David Norton reinstated the 2015 WOTUS rule because administrative procedures were not followed.  Ziemba says the court felt there was not enough time for comments on President Trump’s February delay of implementation.

Ziemba says one farm group took less than a day to file an appeal to the Norton decision.  “And, there’s other injunctions and decisions pending at other district courts, such that within a matter of days or weeks, there might be another ruling that would kind of be another twist in the road.”

Ziemba tells Brownfield that she does not expect the decision will signal a wholesale change of how WOTUS regulations are enforced at the state level but she says anyone working on a specific project should keep working with their assigned administrators.

Attorney Leah Ziemba discusses the WOTUS ruling with Brownfield’s Larry Lee