The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati on Friday issued a stay that temporarily blocks enforcement of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule in all 50 states. The American Soybean Association (ASA) welcomed the ruling and noted that the federal court used the same argument advanced by the nation’s soybean growers—the misapplication of the rule’s significant nexus test, or how connected a body of water in question is to a body of water under Clean Water Act jurisdiction—as a key reason for its decision. ASA President Wade Cowan, a soybean farmer from Brownfield, Texas, commended the court for its decision and called on EPA to pull the rule and commit to working with farmers on more practical ways to meet the nation’s water quality goals:

“The stay granted by the Sixth Circuit this morning only underscores what soybean farmers have been saying about this rule since day one: it is unnecessarily broad, incorrectly applied, and entirely unworkable for American agriculture. The Court pointed to the same misinterpretation of the Supreme Court’s significant nexus test that ASA had identified in its public comments months ago, and allows for additional time to evaluate the application and implication of this rule.

“Moving forward, we propose that EPA abandon the rule as written and start over with farmers at the table. Find out what we’re doing on our farms and at the state and regional levels in watersheds like the Great Lakes, the Chesapeake and the Mississippi, and craft a rule that covers what we don’t. Let’s put something in place—together—to improve water quality nationwide.”