Clean Water Act

National policy adviser Sam Clovis says the Trump campaign is "looking very hard at putting a farmer or rancher in charge of the EPA." Given the impact that federal regulations can have on the sector, Clovis said on the AgriTalk radio program, "we think this would be an appropriate issue for us."

Due to privacy laws that have stymied regulators, no one can say for sure how many CAFOs are in the U.S., much less how large the animal operations really are, says Inside Climate News. “Thousands of industrial farms across the country release contaminants into the nation's water and airways, but in many states like North Carolina, the public has limited access to information about them."

Legal fees are already approaching $2 million in the potentially landmark suit by the Des Moines Water Works against three counties in northwest Iowa over nitrate pollution in the Raccoon River, says the Des Moines Register. The Iowa Farm Bureau and Iowa Corn Growers Association offered financial aid to Buena Vista, Sac and Calhoun counties following their decision to sever a relationship with the private nonprofit Agricultural Legal Defense Fund.

The federal appellate court in Atlanta says it will decide an 11-state lawsuit against the EPA's Waters of the United States rule, although the U.S. appeals court in Cincinnati is consolidating WOTUS challenges into a single case for its consideration, said DTN. A lawyer active in clean-water cases said appeals courts sometimes handle the same issue concurrently: "That is, after all, how circuit splits develop."

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that landowners have the right to challenge in court the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determinations that a wetland is protected under clean water laws. The case involved peat-mining companies in Minnesota who were told their work in a wetland would affect the Red River of the North 120 miles away.

Trial of the potentially precedent-setting lawsuit by the Des Moines Water Works over high nitrate levels in river water was rescheduled to June 26, 2017, rather than starting this August, reports the Des Moines Register. The lawsuit says federal clean-water laws should apply to agricultural runoff that flows through drainage districts in three northwestern Iowa counties and into the Raccoon River, a source of drinking water for Iowa's capital city and suburbs.

Three counties in northwest Iowa have spent $1.1 million on attorney fees to defend themselves against a lawsuit by the Des Moines Water Works that blames the counties for high nitrate levels in river water, said the Des Moines Register.

The U.S. appeals court in Cincinnati claimed jurisdiction to decide the legal challenges to the EPA's "Waters of the United States" regulation, which defines the upstream reach of clean water laws, reports DTN.

Iowa’s water woes seemed slightly less woeful after the state received a $97 million federal grant for water quality and flooding projects, reports The Des Moines Register.

Opponents say they will continue to fight the EPA's "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) regulation despite losing their long-shot attempt at a legislative veto of the rule.

The record still stands: in two decades, Congress has nullified only one federal regulation. The House gave final congressional approval to a resolution of disapproval a week ago to the "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) regulation issued by the EPA. And on Tuesday, President Obama vetoed the resolution.

The long battle over the EPA's "waters of the United States" rule defining the upstream reach of clean-water laws will reach a milestone this week.

In a legal opinion, the Government Accountability Office, a congressional agency, said the EPA violated publicity and anti-lobbying restrictions in its use of the social media platform Thunderclap to urge support for its Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule.

The catch-all government spending bill that will be among the final pieces of legislation to pass Congress this year might be a vehicle for repeal of the country-of-origin label and the federal pre-emption of state GMO labeling laws, said Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley.

EPA surveys have shown that chemicals draining from crop fields have become the leading source of pollution in U.S. rivers and lakes. Because many municipalities source drinking water from these rivers and lakes, the issue has gotten contentious.

As a result of the Supreme Court decision on the upstream reach of antipollution laws, half of the water in U.S. rivers comes from so-called ephemeral streams that are now without federal protection, said researchers from the University of Massachusetts and Yale on Thursday.