Environmental Advocates Agree Rule Needed to Address Water Act Jurisdiction
BNA Report for Executives
June 29, 2011
Lawrence R. "Larry" Liebesman- Washington
Environmental Litigation Partner Lawrence Liebesman was quoted in a BNA Report for Executives article titled "Environmental Advocates Agree Rule Needed to Address Water Act Jurisdiction."
The article reports that an Environmental Law Institute panel on which Mr. Liebesman spoke agreed that a rulemaking, not guidance, would best address how to determine which waters are subject to Clean Water Act jurisdiction and would provide more consistency for industry and regulators. “We are very concerned about going through with the guidance, that it would expand [federal] jurisdiction,” Mr. Liebesman said during the seminar. He said the proposed guidance, which the United States Environmental Protection Agency has acknowledged would expand Clean Water Act jurisdiction, “would have severe economic impacts given today's recession.” A key industry objection to expanding Clean Water Act jurisdiction pertains to federalism, the belief held by builders and other parties that federal decisions are encroaching on state, local and private property rights, he said. He also objected to the proposed guidance's consideration for federal jurisdiction of isolated waters. The effect of the proposed guidance for determining federal jurisdiction would result in more of a “desktop approach” rather than a field approach to making these decisions, creating an assumption not necessarily based on fact, he said.
Related Practices