Colorado AG Filed Lawsuit Challenging Narrowed Waters of the United States Rule

MAY 22, 2020

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser filed a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which eliminated federal protections for more than half of the nation’s wetlands and hundreds of thousands of miles of upland streams by dramatically narrowing the definition of “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act. In the complaint, AG Weiser emphasized that the rule “conflicts with the text of the Clean Water Act, contravenes controlling Supreme Court precedent, contradicts the Act’s objective, and ignores sound science,” and noted that the lawsuit is necessary “to protect Colorado’s critically important streams and wetlands from a dramatic reduction in federal Clean Water Act jurisdiction” that will result from the rule.