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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Judge: Injunction blocking water rule limited to 13 states, not nationwide

A federal judge in North Dakota said Friday that his injunction blocking a new Obama administration rule aimed at regulating some small waterways applies only to the 13 states that sued to block it, and not nationwide, the AP reports. Idaho is one of the 13 states that sought to stop the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers from implementing new rules regulating some small streams, tributaries and wetlands under the Clean Water Act. After the EPA began implementing the rules everywhere but in the 13 states that sued to block it, the states went back to U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson asking that his temporary injunction be applied nationwide; the judge declined. The Associated Press has a full report here.

"No harm, no foul for North Dakota and the 12 other states," said North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, who filed the original lawsuit on behalf of the group of states. "It's unfortunate for the other states because they will have to abide by the ruling." U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson wrote, "Because there are competing sovereign interests and competing judicial rulings, the court declines to extend the preliminary injunction at issue beyond the entities actually before it."



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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