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North Carolina has a joined a coalition of 16 states, the District of Columbia and the City of New York in a lawsuit against the Trump administration.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein made the announcement last Friday that his office and North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality filed the lawsuit against the administration’s proposal to weaken Clean Water Act protections, reducing them to protections last seen in the 1980s.

Stein’s lawsuit seeks to preserve the status quo — the rule as it was under the George W. Bush administration, as opposed to the 2015 Waters of the United States rule issued during the Obama administration. The Obama-era rule was challenged immediately by dozens of states, industry groups and environmental organizations; a primary complaint was that the EPA “failed to listen to concerned farmers, ranchers and business owners around the country in crafting its new rule,” according to the American Farm Bureau Federation website.

The EPA announced the current Clean Water Act rollbacks in February 2019, and finalized the legislation on April 21.

“North Carolinians deserve clean water. Our health, seafood industry, agricultural sector and quality of life all depend on it. This Trump administration rule would reduce vital protections of wetlands and streams to their lowest levels since the 1980s. This is both absolutely unacceptable and contrary to law,” Stein is quoted in a press release. “We must have protections to prevent contaminants from flowing into our rivers and to preserve our wetlands. Wetlands filter out pollutants and reduce the risk of flooding. The last thing the people of eastern North Carolina need is to be exposed to greater risk from future hurricanes. And farms, factories and fishermen all depend on clean water.”

Stein said a weakened Waters of the United States Rule represents a major threat to North Carolina’s water quality. Sound Rivers Executive Director Heather Deck said the local environmental organization was glad to hear North Carolina had taken “a strong step to protect our communities.”

“While we are facing an uncertain, challenging time, your waterways cannot afford for a pause in our work to protect them,” Deck wrote in an email.