By Karen Freifeld
October 2, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/
Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Nine states including New York, Illinois and Michigan joined the Canadian province of Manitoba in suing the Environmental Protection Agency for allegedly diluting U.S. Clean Water Act protections of waterways and drinking water.
The EPA opened an ``illegal loophole'' with a June 9 regulation that exempts the transfer of polluted water from one body of water to another, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. Lawsuits have been filed today in Manhattan federal court and with the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York.
The states have also sued to require the EPA to set standards for emissions from power plants and oil refineries, and over their right to regulate pollution from cars. On Sept. 18, the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in favor of an action challenging the agency's failure to control toxic stormwater discharges from construction sites.
``The Bush EPA continues to create environmental loopholes that will degrade New York's waterways, prevent fishermen and others from enjoying our streams and put the Great Lakes at risk,'' Cuomo said in the statement.
Benjamin Grumbles, the EPA assistant administrator for water, said in a statement that the agency will continue to ``protect the nation's streams and rivers from potential impacts from water transfers.''
Also suing were Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri and Washington.
To contact the reporter on this story: Karen Freifeld in New York at kfreifeld@bloomberg.net
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