The Western Governors’ Association urges the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers to extend the “insufficient” comment period for the proposed rule, Revised Definition of “Waters of the United States.”
“The proposed rule will have substantial impacts on the balance of state and federal authority to manage and protect the nation’s water resources, as well as the state-federal partnerships that are involved in the implementation of the Clean Water Act,” states the letter signed by WGA Executive Director James Ogsbury.
The Jan. 17, 2019 outreach to EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works R.D. James notes the 60-day comment period is “insufficient for states to adequately review the content.”
The letter also asserts, “as co-regulators of water resources, states should be fully consulted and engaged in any process that may affect the management, allocation, or protection of water resources. Federal decisions that are informed by state expertise and viewpoints result in more effective, efficient, and durable federal policy that positively affects the state-federal relationship and better serves our common constituencies.”
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