Quorum Report Daily Buzz Quorum Report Daily Buzz Login into the Quorum Report Subscribe toQuorum Report
Quorum Report Daily Buzz

August 27, 2014      4:15 PM

New Clean Water Act definitions could raise costs exponentially for state and local governments

"Albrecht’s interpretation of the new definitions, as applied to Kansas, would move the state from regulating 32,000 miles of streams to 134,000 miles of streams"

Revised definitions circulating for the Clean Water Act could add hundreds of millions of dollars to local and state budgets, a lawyer predicted at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Minneapolis last week.

The concern centers on expanded definitions in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Waters of the U.S. rule, which was released in March. Under the rule, waterways that must be regulated and tested could double, triple or even quadruple within state boundaries, with oversight falling to local and state government.

“You think you know what the definition of water is until you try to regulate it,” said attorney Virginia Albrecht of Hunton & Williams LLP. “These regulations are broad, they’re not clear, and it’s probably going to cost a lot of money.”

By Kimberly Reeves