ASSOCIATED PRESS • July 21, 2020
Attorneys general in 20 states and the District of Columbia, including Maine, sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, alleging that new federal rules undermine their ability to protect rivers, lakes and streams within their borders. They say that new rules issued last week alter a practice dating back more than 30 years giving state governments the authority to review, block or put conditions on federally permitted water projects. The changes are among several steps the Trump administration has taken to roll back the Clean Water Act, including ending federal protection in January for many of the nation’s millions of miles of streams, wetlands and arroyos and wetlands.