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September 23, 2014      8:57 AM

Are new water regulations a land grab or jurisdictional clarification?

Texas Congressmen sign on to resolution calling new rules federal overreach

House members may be up in arms, but it’s still impossible to know exactly how burdensome amendments to the Clean Water Act could be on Texas.

The Waters of the United States rule, which are open for comment until October, have been roundly opposed by the national counties association and a number of regional water authorities. At a session at the National Conference of State Legislatures earlier this summer, Ken Kopocis of the Environmental Protection Agency painted the rule as a work in process intended to tighten regulation, wholly based on research, that still had room for clarification from partner states.

Attorney Virginia Albrecht of Huntoon & Williams LLC, on the other hand, painted a rule with so many ambiguous definitions that it would be fraught with problems and expenses among the many jurisdictions charged with enforcing it. Those problems include points as simple ditch, tributary and even with the deadline to post comments only a month away, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has little to say about its own particular viewpoint on the issue. Asked whether the law would be good or bad for Texas, an agency spokesman simply stated TCEQ would submit comments on the rule.

By Kimberly Reeves