(UNDATED) – Attorney General Curtis Hill today welcomed the Trump administration’s new environmental rule on navigable waters, which replaces a previous language that threatened the states’ rightful authority to regulate land and water resources within their own borders.
“The final Navigable Waters Protection Rule appropriately replaces the Obama-era rule that expanded the definition of ‘waters of the United States’ to include land areas that only get wet when it rains,” Attorney General Hill said. “This broad designation allowed federal authorities to claim jurisdiction over private property in Indiana.”
Since taking office in 2017, Attorney General Hill has worked to roll back federal overreach.
“Hours after I had the privilege of meeting President Trump at the White House in February of 2017,” Attorney General Hill said, “he announced an executive order directing federal authorities to review the Waters of the United States rule. This action demonstrated his resolve to properly balance environmental protection, economic growth and the constitutional roles of the U.S. Congress and the individual states.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Army announced the new rule on Jan. 23. More information, including a pre-publication version of the Federal Register notice and fact sheets, is available at: https://www.epa.gov/nwpr.
