Corps Drops Appeal Over Wetlands Rules
From Al Malefatto of GT West Palm Beach and Kerri Barsh of GT Miami:
As we wrote earlier, in New Hope Power Company and Okeelanta Corporation v. United States Army Corps of Engineers and Steven L. Stockton, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida enjoined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' from enforcing its guidance documents, which modified the Corps's interpretation of its wetlands regulations.
The Corps, and other parties, appealed Judge Moore's decision, but last month the appellants voluntarily dismissed those appeals. Click here and here to see the two orders of dismissal. Stay tuned to see if the Corps decides to promulgate new regulations to determine whether prior converted crop lands may be regulated as wetlands under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, if those lands are no longer used for agricultural purposes.
