Guest opinion: Flawed EPA water rule overreaches
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I would like to respond to a guest opinion that appeared in the July 10 edition
regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s Waters of the United
States rule. Instead of casting accusations and fairy tales, the author
should have stuck to facts. What the author did get right was that the
EPA did propose its final rule on Waters of the United States. This rule
takes effect on Aug. 28 and will add new waters to federal
jurisdiction.
The EPA’s claimed need
for this rule is that two Supreme Court cases created confusion around
the Clean Water Act. This is echoed by the author of the July 10 opinion
piece. What neither the EPA nor author want to recognize is that both
of these court cases clearly limited the EPA’s jurisdiction to
“navigable” water under the Clean Water Act. Only the EPA and its
environmental activist friends fail to understand these rulings.
The EPA’s jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act would expand immensely
under its proposed WOTUS rule. Among the numerous questionable
provisions, the rule would define “navigable waters” so as to regulate
countless ephemeral drains, ditches and “wetlands” that contain water
only when it rains.
But whether they
are wet or dry on any given day, farming, home building, business
expansions, commercial development and countless other land uses in or
near these land features will require a federal permit. Permits might
take years, or might never be issued. The result amounts to nothing
short of federal zoning authority. Not only is this not what Congress
had in mind when it wrote the Clean Water Act but it would effectively
give environmental groups veto power over any development.
Furthermore, this rule was flawed from its beginning. According to Agripulse,
“Internal documents released by a House committee show the Army Corps
of Engineers questioning the legal and technical basis for the Obama
administration’s Clean Water Act rule just weeks before its release.”
I urge the citizens from Colorado to contact the office of Sen. Michael
Bennet and ask for his support of S. 1140, the Federal Water Protection
Act. This bipartisan legislation bill requires the EPA to reissue the
rule that does not include things such as isolated ponds, ditches,
agriculture water, storm water, ground water, floodwater, municipal
water supply systems, wastewater management systems and streams without
enough flow to carry pollutants to navigable waters.
The EPA should work with the states and local governmental entities to
develop a common-sense rule that addresses shortfalls without going
overboard.
Carlyle Currier is vice president of the Colorado Farm Bureau.
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