Rounds Praises Trump’s Action to Undo WOTUS

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today praised President Trump’s executive order that will begin to undo the Obama administration’s overreaching Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule. The executive order will require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps to review the WOTUS rule to make certain it promotes economic growth and minimizes regulatory uncertainty. It also requires agencies to rescind or revise aspects of WOTUS that are incompatible with this new policy guidance.

“If implemented, the WOTUS rule would be one of the largest federal land grabs in the history of our country,” said Rounds. “It would give the Army Corps and  the EPA control of nearly all water, including man-made water management systems, farm ponds, drainage ditches and any other water that the EPA decides has a ‘significant nexus’ to downstream water. Under WOTUS, farmers, ranchers and landowners would be forced to spend hours filling out burdensome paperwork to get permits from the EPA and Army Corps just to conduct normal agricultural activities or spray for weeds along our county roads. I applaud President Trump for taking steps to undo this unnecessary, misguided overreach.”

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