Rounds: WOTUS regulations overreaching, burdensome for farmers
Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed a rule to expand the definition of “Waters of the U.S.” (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act. At the end of May, the EPA announced its final rule.
WOTUS will be one of the most burdensome and overreaching regulations in history for South Dakota’s farmers and ranchers. Essentially, anyone who owns or makes a living from the land will be affected.
This unprecedented power grab will dramatically expand the federal government’s jurisdiction of water regulation far beyond what Congress intended when the Clean Water Act was passed. Farmers and ranchers are rightly concerned about the compliance costs this misguided rule will have on their operations.
Earlier this year, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy testified in front of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, of which I am a member, and tried to defend WOTUS.
During that hearing, she told us explicitly that isolated ponds not connected to other waterways would remain unregulated.
She also told us that irrigation ditches were of no interest to the EPA. Yet the final rule gives EPA the power to regulate water in a 100-year floodplain of a navigable waterway, any water that is 4,000 feet from a tributary, and any prairie pothole, pool or wetland that EPA has declared a “regional water treasure” if it can identify a “significant nexus” with a navigable waterway. EPA defines “significant nexus” broadly; therefore, under the final rule, almost every waterway listed above falls under the category of a water of the U.S.
I’ve heard from a number of South Dakota farmers and ranchers who continue to tell me the WOTUS rule will bog down productivity. Our ag producers should be focused on growing crops and caring for livestock, not wasting time filling out paperwork or waiting around to get a permit to spray weeds in their ditches.
In the Senate, I joined a bipartisan group to introduce legislation that will roll back the effects of WOTUS and protect landowners across the country who are bracing for the onslaught of new regulatory compliance rules.
Our bill, the Federal Water Quality Protection Act, would keep traditional, navigable waters safe, and it would also protect the livelihood of farmers and ranchers by requiring EPA and the Army Corps to abandon the rule’s massive expansion. Instead, it directs the administration to go back to the drawing board, following principles and procedures we set forth in our bill.
Our bill clarifies that the definition of WOTUS does not include things such as groundwater, sheet flow, agricultural water and temporary ponds formed from rainwater, floodwater and wastewater because they do not have a connection to navigable waters.
We also recommend grandfathering systems that may have been created by converting a stream into a water management system before the Clean Water Act was enacted. These common-sense ideas help set clear limits on the federal regulation of water.
Farmers and ranchers know their land better than anyone. Often times, it is handed down for generations. They make their living from the land and have a vested interest in preserving and protecting it for future generations. They are inherently good stewards of the land.
Our bill would require the EPA and Army Corps to work with the ag community and state and local governments when determining which water features should be under federal jurisdiction and which should be left alone.
I recently introduced the RESTORE Resolution, which would establish a committee to review rules. Too many rules are being made by unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats who have no direct contact with everyday Americans.
I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues in the Senate to stop the WOTUS rule from wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of farmers and ranchers so they are free to continue their important job of feeding a growing population.
