Virginia officials scored a key victory
Thursday in their battle with the Environmental Protection Agency over what EPA
critics describe as a land takeover.
U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady in
Alexandria ruled late Thursday that the EPA exceeded its authority by
attempting to regulate stormwater runoff into a Fairfax County creek as a
pollutant. O'Grady sided with the Virginia Department of Transportation and the
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, which challenged EPA's stormwater
restrictions
"Stormwater runoff is not a
pollutant, so EPA is not authorized to regulate it," O'Grady said.Attorney
General Ken Cuccinelli says the ruling could ultimately save Virginia taxpayers
more than $300 million. An EPA spokesman could not be reached for comment after
business hours.
The EPA, citing an abundance of
stormwater runoff, had proposed a plan that Virginia officials said could cost
homeowners and businesses their private property. The EPA contended that water
itself can be regulated as a pollutant if there's too much of it. The agency
says heavy runoff is having a negative impact on Accotink Creek and that it has
the regulatory authority to remedy the situation.
Cuccinelli, a Republican, argued what
the EPA has proposed is "illegal," and he's not alone in the fight.
He was joined in the lawsuit against the federal agency by the Democratic-controlled
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
In legal filings, the EPA says that its
plan is "in harmony with the broader purposes" of the Clean Water
Act, including "reducing the water quality impacts of stormwater."
"There is no possibility of homes
being removed in this process," Simon Rosenberg, founder of the New
Democrat Network, said. He called the claim by Cuccinelli an
"overstatement."
In nearly every industry in our nation
they report yearly significant job losses due to new EPA regulations and higher
standards. The energy industry has closed coal fired electric plants, moved
drilling to dangerous deep waters, and has warned of pending energy storages as
a result. When will this country learn to rein in on the power hungy EPA, and
thank goodness there are people winning the fight against the EPA!
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