OREANDA-NEWS. Tennessee lawmakers urged the state to join with other states and industry associations in challenging recently finalized revisions to US water pollution regulations.

The "Waters of the US" rule, published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and US Army Corps of Engineers on 29 June, "violates the Clean Water Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, the US Constitution and usurps the authority of the states for the primary responsibility of management, protection and care of intrastate waters and land," Tennessee House majority leader Sheila Butt (R) wrote in a 6 July letter that was released late last week.

At least 60 members of the state House and Senate co-signed the letter urging Republican state attorney general Herbert Slatery to declare the rule, which was published on 29 June, illegal and order an emergency injunction to block implementation. The members proposed that the state join 27 other states in a lawsuit against the rule.

"I understand there is a cost to litigation," Butt said. "However, the cost of implementing this rule to the agriculture industry and the personal property rights of Tennesseans would be far more devastating," she added.

The rule, which takes effect on 28 August, provides guidelines identifying which covered tributaries and other adjacent waterways such as wetlands are subject to federal regulation. But opponents from the agricultural and mining communities say the rule is too expansive, subjecting ditches, dry creeks and ponds near mine sites or farms to federal water quality and discharge requirements.

So far, three suits have been filed in the US District Court for the District of North Dakota's southeastern division; the US District Court of the Southern District of Texas; and the US District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia. Coal company Murray Energy, which filed the West Virginia suit, also plans to file an appeal in US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Several bills in the US House of Representatives and Senate to stop implementation or roll back the rule have been filed. The Federal Water Quality Protection Act (S 114) introduced by senator Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) and others in April, is under committee review.

The Regulatory Integrity Protection Act of 2015 (HR 1732), which passed the US House of Representatives on 12 May, has yet to be be considered by a Senate committee.