New York City and state filed motions late Tuesday to intervene in a lawsuit over the implementation, or lack thereof, of federal water quality standards that will largely impact waterways in and around the city. The motions put the two entities in the unusual position of being on the same side of the Trump administration in a legal fight.

On Tuesday, the city filed its papers in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, requesting to join Riverkeeper v. Pruitt, 17-cv-04916. The aquatic environmental organization and its co-plaintiffs sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in June, accusing it of failing to properly regulate state rules over sewage levels in waterways around the city such as the Hudson River, Newtown Creek and certain tributaries of Jamaica Bay.