Legal fight over a ditch puts 265-home Utah project at risk

A narrow irrigation ditch runs along the edge of a 142-acre former farm near Willard, about 50 miles north of Salt Lake City. Beside it sits a 2.74-acre patch of wet ground. Both features are now at the center of a federal lawsuit. Federal regulators say the ditch connects to the Great Salt Lake, which would protect the entire parcel under the Clean Water Act. Residential developers call that connection a legal stretch. Willard Land, which wants to build 265 homes, sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday. The company challenges the agency’s decision to claim jurisdiction over the ditch and wetland. It wants a federal judge to throw out that finding. “The Clean Water Act gives the Army Corps of Engineers limited authority to regulate navigable waters – not total control over every drainage ditch and damp parcel of land in the country,” Charles Yates, an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation representing the developer, said in a statement. “Federal agencies cannot expand their authority beyond the limits Congress set and the Supreme Court has enforced. When Congress draws a line, lower courts and agencies must follow it.” This case shows how environmental rules can and do c...