Industry Asks Supreme Court To Take Up Chesapeake Cleanup Plan

"The American Farm Bureau Federation and other industry groups today asked the Supreme Court to review U.S. EPA's landmark approach for cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.

The groups argued that the agency far overstepped its bounds under the Clean Water Act in issuing a pollution diet, or total maximum daily load (TMDL), for the entire 64,000-square-mile watershed.

The TMDL sets specific pollution reduction targets as well as hard timelines and backstop measures for the six-state region. That, the groups argued, infringed on state and local authority to regulate land use -- a fundamental principle of the Clean Water Act."

Annie Snider reports for Greenwire November 6, 2015.