Clean Water Rule Response to Comments – Topic 10: Legal Analysis Clean Water Rule Comment Compendium Topic 10: Legal Analysis The Response to Comments Document, together with the preamble to the final Clean Water Rule, presents the responses of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Army (collectively “the agencies”) to the more than one million public comments received on the proposed rule (79 FR 22188 (Apr. 21, 2014)). The agencies have addressed all significant issues raised in the public comments. As a result of changes made to the preamble and final rule prior to signature, and due to the volume of comments received, some responses in the Response to Comments Document may not reflect the language in the preamble and final rule in every respect. Where the response is in conflict with the preamble or the final rule, the language in the final preamble and rule controls and should be used for purposes of understanding the scope, requirements, and basis of the final rule. In addition, due to the large number of comments that addressed similar issues, as well as the volume of the comments received, the Response to Comments Document does not always cross-reference each response to the commenter(s) who raised the particular issue involved. The responses presented in this document are intended to augment the responses to comments that appear in the preamble to the final rule or to address comments not discussed in that preamble. Although portions of the preamble to the final rule are paraphrased in this document where useful to add clarity to responses, the preamble itself remains the definitive statement of the rationale for the revisions adopted in the final rule. In many instances, particular responses presented in the Response to Comments Document include cross references to responses on related issues that are located either in the preamble to the Clean Water Rule, the Technical Support Document, or elsewhere in the Response to Comments Document. All issues on which the agencies are taking final action in the Clean Water Rule are addressed in the Clean Water Rule rulemaking record. Accordingly, the Response to Comments Document, together with the preamble to the Clean Water Rule and the information contained in the Technical Support Document, the Science Report, and the rest of the administrative record should be considered collectively as the agencies’ response to all of the significant comments submitted on the proposed rule. The Response to Comments Document incorporates directly or by reference the significant public comments addressed in the preamble to the Clean Water Rule as well as other significant public comments that were submitted on the proposed rule. This compendium, as part of the Response to Comments Document, provides a compendium of the technical comments about the Agencies’ legal analysis submitted by commenters. Comments have been copied into this document “as is” with no editing or summarizing. Footnotes in regular font are taken directly from the comments. Note: While the contractor established a placeholder in this document for the “Agency Response,” the rule is promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Army and the responses are those of the agencies. 1 Clean Water Rule Response to Comments – Topic 10: Legal Analysis TOPIC 10. COMMENTS ON LEGAL ANALYSIS ............................................................................. 12 AGENCY SUMMARY RESPONSE .................................................................................... 12 SPECIFIC COMMENTS ................................................................................................... 12 Offices of the Attorney Generals of Oklahoma, West Virginia, Nebraska (Doc. #7988) ................................................................................................................... 12 Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (Doc. #10260) ........ 12 State of New York, Office of Attorney General (Doc. #10940) ........................... 17 Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts (Doc. #10952) ........................................ 17 Georgia Department of Agriculture (Doc. #12351) .............................................. 19 Department of Justice, State of Montana (Doc. #13625) ...................................... 19 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (Doc. #14465) ...... 20 U.S. House of Representative Committee on Small Business (Doc. #14751) ..... 21 State of Oklahoma (Doc. #14773) ........................................................................ 23 Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (Doc. #15038) .............................................. 23 San Carlos Apache Tribe (Doc. #15067) .............................................................. 25 Samuel T. Biscoe, County Judge (Doc. #4876) .................................................... 25 Bonner County Board of Commissioners (Doc. #4879) ....................................... 25 Monroe County, New York (Doc. #5555.1) ......................................................... 25 Karnes County Soil and Water Conservation District (Doc. #6793) .................... 26 County of Butler, Board of Commissioners (Doc. #6918.1) ................................ 26 White Pine County Board of County Commissioners, White Pine County, Nevada et al. (Doc. #6936.1) ............................................................................................. 29 Murray County Board of Commissioners (Doc. #7528.1) ................................... 30 Southeast Texas Groundwater Conservation District (Doc. #8142) ..................... 30 La Plata Water Conservancy District (Doc. #8318) ............................................. 30 Southeast Texas Groundwater Conservation District (Doc. #8419.1) .................. 31 Beaver County Commission (Doc. #9667) ........................................................... 31 Imperial County Board of Supervisors (Doc. #10259) ......................................... 34 Richland County, Montana Office of County Commissioners (Doc. #10551)..... 35 Sanpete County Commissioners (Doc. #11978) ................................................... 35 Washington County Board of County Commissioners (Doc. #12340) ................ 37 Weld County, Colorado (Doc. #12343) ................................................................ 37 City of Palo Alto, California (Doc. #12714) ......................................................... 37 Board of Commissioners, Carbon County, Utah (Doc. #12738) .......................... 37 Mille Lacs County Board of Commissioners (Doc. #13198) ............................... 37 Lafourche- Terrebonne Soil and Water Conservation District (Doc. #13582) ..... 38 Parish of Jefferson (Doc. #14574.1) ..................................................................... 39 Waters of the United States Coalition (Doc. #14589) .......................................... 39 Republican River Water Conservation District (Doc. #15621) ............................ 43 Meeteetse Conservation District (Doc. #16383) ................................................... 44 Hot Springs County Commission (Doc. #16676) ................................................ 44 Colusa County Board of Supervisors (Doc. #17002) .......................................... 44 Sienna Plantation Levee Improvement District (Doc. #17455) ............................ 45 Fountain Green City Council (Doc. #18899) ........................................................ 46 Hidalgo Soil and Water Conservation District, Lordsburg, New Mexico (Doc. #19450) ................................................................................................................. 46 2 Clean Water Rule Response to Comments – Topic 10: Legal Analysis California State Association of Counties (Doc. #9692)........................................ 46 Florida Association of Counties (Doc. #10193) ................................................... 47 Nebraska Association of Resource Districts (Doc. #11855) ................................ 48 Florida Rural Water Association (Doc. #14897) .................................................. 49 Fort Bend Flood Management Association (Doc. #15248) .................................. 49 Oklahoma Municipal League (Doc. #16526) ....................................................... 50 Minnesota Chamber of Commerce (Doc. #16473) ............................................... 50 Louisiana Landowners Association (Doc. #16490) .............................................. 51 Mountain States Legal Foundation (Doc. #15113) .............................................. 51 Western Urban Water Coalition (Doc. #15178) ................................................... 55 Western Urban Water Coalition (Doc. #15178.1) ................................................ 56 Automotive Recyclers Association (Doc. #15343) .............................................. 56 U.S. Chamber of Commerce, et al. (Doc. #14115) ............................................... 57 California Building Industry Association, et al. (Doc. #14523) ........................... 61 New Mexico Association of Commerce and Industry (Doc. #14638).................. 62 Federal Stormwater Association (Doc. #15161) .................................................. 62 Steel Manufacturers Association, et al. (Doc. #15416) ........................................ 65 Landmark Legal Foundation (Doc. #15364) ........................................................ 67 Atlantic Legal