DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — WOTUS is on hold.
A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the Biden administration expansion of the Clean Water Act in 24 states, including Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa.
The Biden administration has carried over a rule first proposed during the Obama administration; an expansion of the Clean Water Act, called Waters of the United States…commonly known as WOTUS…that would expand the definition of waters covered by the act.
Opponents claim WOTUS is federal overreach that goes well beyond the intent of Congress when it approved the Clean Water Act in 1972.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland in Bismarck, North Dakota, halted the regulations from the EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by the 24 states, most of which are led by Republicans.
The regulations were finalized in December 2022, reinstated a rule proposed during the presidency of Barack Obama, but never implemented.
In his 45-page order, Hovland wrote that the federal regulation “raises a litany of ... statutory and constitutional concerns and would cause great harm to the states."