EPA Finalizes Rule To Protect Tribal Treaty Rights In State Water Standards

EPA has released its final rule requiring states to consider tribal treaty rights such as fishing in their Clean Water Act (CWA) water quality standards (WQS), though with looser versions of some proposed mandates that Trump-era officials warned could draw legal challenges from state governments as “quintessential federalism issues.” The CWA rule is slated for publication in the May 2 Federal Register , and adds requirements for states’ WQS governing waters where tribes hold and assert either treaty-based or statutory...