ELR Citation: 51 ELR 20189
No(s). C 20-04636 WHA, C 20-04869 WHA, and C 20-06137 WHA (N.D. Cal. Oct 21, 2021) (Alsup, J.)

A district court vacated and remanded EPA's 2020 Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Rule, which limited the ability of states and Native American tribes to regulate water pollution. States, tribes, and conservation groups sought to have the rule vacated, and EPA moved to remand without vacatur to give it time to promulgate a revised rule. The court found that the lack of reasoned decisionmaking and apparent errors in the rule's scope of certification, indications that the rule contravened the structure and purpose of the CWA, and the fact that EPA itself signaled it could not or would not adopt the same rule on remand cast significant doubt that the rule was correctly promulgated; and that leaving the rule in place would risk "significant environmental harms." It therefore vacated the rule and remanded to EPA for further proceedings.