ELR Citation: 54 ELR 20053
No(s). 22-1783 (JRT/LIB) (D. Minn. Mar 29, 2024) (Tunheim, J.)

A district court denied summary judgment for Native American tribes in a challenge to EPA's approval of Minnesota's 2021 revised water quality standards. The revisions replaced quantitative standards with qualitative narrative standards that describe the characteristics Minnesota waters must have to protect industrial consumption or irrigated agriculture uses, and that are applied on a site-specific basis through state-issued water use permits. The tribes argued EPA failed to meaningfully consider the adverse impact removing the numeric limits in the revised standards might have on other downstream uses, particularly aquatic life and wild rice, as well as the tribes' treaty rights to use Minnesota waters. The court found EPA supplied a rational basis for its determination that the revised standards would protect their designated uses, were scientifically sound, and that the most sensitive uses would be protected in waters with multiple uses. It denied the tribes' motion for summary judgment and granted EPA's cross-motion.