FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE :    Thursday, December 10, 2015 
CONTACT:  Sara Rabern (605)773-3215   

South Dakota Joins Further Challenge to EPA Authority Removing State Decision Making

PIERRE, S.D. – Attorney General Marty Jackley announces today that South Dakota has joined 21 other bipartisan State Attorneys General in an Amicus Curiae or “friend of the Court” challenge to the EPA’s continued “interpretation” to expand its authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The case is American Farm Bureau Federation v. United States Environmental Protection Agency and led by the Attorneys General of Kansas, Indiana and Missouri.
"The EPA is overstepping its Congressional authority and removing the states’ decision making authority,” said Jackley.  “The EPA expansive interpretation and complex regulatory requirements harm and create continued uncertainty for the agriculture community and small businesses.”
The Third Federal Circuit has deferred to the EPA’s interpretation of the words “the total maximum daily load, (TMDL)” permitting the EPA to impose complex regulatory requirements that do much more than cap daily levels of total pollutant limits and displace powers reserved to the States. The brief argues that this decision is contrary to the CWA plain language and destroys the Act’s cooperative federalism framework. The decision allows the EPA to micromanage state and local governments’ decisions regarding land use and development. The brief contends the EPA used the Chesapeake Bay TMDL to extend its authority beyond that permitted by the CWA when it purported to regulate “upstream” States even though no part of the Chesapeake Bay is located within those States.
There is no cost to join as amicus curiae other than the inclusion of some attorney consultation time in support of the multi-state briefing.  The following states have joined: Kansas, Indiana, Missouri, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

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