At almost the last moment a North Dakota District Judge acted late on Thursday to block the EPA’s anti water pollution rule, hours before it was due to take effect.
Judge Ralph Erickson of the District Court for the District of North Dakota found that the 13 states suing to block the rule met the conditions necessary for a preliminary injunction, including that they would likely be harmed if courts didn’t act and that they are likely to succeed when their underlying lawsuit against the rule is decided.
Injunction Does Not Apply to the Great Lakes
The EPA plans to largely enforce the regulation as planned. They argued that the
Michigan and Ohio suffer from seasonal algae blooms in Saginaw Bay and Western Lake Erie due to sewage and farm run-off.