Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 9/25/15

The Supreme Court has extended to Nov. 6 from Oct. 4 the deadline by which agricultural groups must file to fight lower-court approvals of the Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to clean up the Chesapeake Bay estuary, according to the high court’s website.

The American Farm Bureau Federation, National Pork Producers Council and other agriculture industry representatives sought the extra time, according to media reports, in order to give new legal counsel time to bone up and possibly ask for Supreme Court relief on the case, originally filed in 2010.

The groups say the EPA’s total daily maximum load (TMDL) restrictions for pollutants entering the Chesapeake Bay are excessively stringent and intrude on state oversight.

In July, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third District ruled in favor of the EPA. Judges said the multi-state span of the country’s largest estuary and its impact on national commerce made the federal agency’s oversight appropriate.

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