WOTUS Final Ruling and the Supreme Court

I hope you are all staying safe this week as record-setting rainfall floods California. As we see ponds forming from this atmospheric river, they serve as stark reminders of the WOTUS’ rule’s unknown fate, and how it will affect your production, business, and livelihood.

Although the EPA released the ruling in late December, the Sackett v. EPA case currently before the Supreme Court could complicate the EPA’s implementation of the new ruling.

Ethan Lane, Vice President of Government Affairs with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, says when asked about whether a ruling on that case could alter the new EPA final rule…

“Typically a new rule making would go to court; we’d go to the district court, the appeals court, it would be years before the supreme court heard it. Given the timing of an existing case moving through the court system, this ruling is immediately subject to challenge, and that’s going to be an interesting set of circumstances. As they move to implement it, they could have to immediately pull it back or portions of it, depending on what the Supreme Court says. We never want to pre-suppose what the Supreme Court might rule, but certainly with that 6-3 majority for conservatives in the court and some of the other rulings we’ve seen them make, regarding federal authorities, this is something that’s definitely going to be in their sites.”