Air Force lawyers are fighting an emergency order from the Environmental Protection Agency requiring the service to clean contaminated drinking water in Arizona, pointing to a recent Supreme Court ruling that restricts regulatory agencies as a justification to dodge the mandate.
In a letter last month, lawyers for the Air Force argued that a landmark June decision by the court in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo — which reduced regulatory agencies’ power by pushing authority to the courts to interpret ambiguous laws, referred to as “Chevron deference” — makes the EPA‘s order asking the service to clean contaminated water from the Tucson International Airport moot.
“In this respect, the Supreme Court’s recent decision … makes clear that EPA’s interpretation of these statutory terms is not entitled to deference,” lawyers for the Air Force wrote, citing the recent ruling. “The EPA will not have the benefit of any ‘Chevron deference’ in any such proceeding.”
Read Next: Soldiers Hit with More Problems Accessing Education Benefits Amid Fall Enrollment Deadlines
In the 1980s, a 10-square-mile area around the Tucson International Airport and military facilities was designated as a Superfund site by the EPA. Groundwater was contaminated by “former aircraft and electronics manufacturing and aircraft maintenance,” “fire drill trainings” and “leaking of chemicals from unlined landfills” from Air Force Plant 44 and Morris Air National…
