The Environmental Protection Agency recently opened the comment period on the revised definition of Waters of the United States that clarifies federal authority under the Clean Water Act.
The comment period allows farmers and ranchers to tell EPA how the Clean Water Rule improves the flawed 2015 rule. Don Parrish, American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) senior director of Regulatory Relations, said the new rule simplifies the regulation.
“Farmers and ranchers want to be protective of water quality, but they also don’t want the federal government stepping over the line or using the Clean Water Act to regulate land use,” Parrish said. “That’s what the old rule did. This rule, we think, draws a very clear distinction between land and water.”
Parish noted the proposal changes definitions within the rule, making it easier to understand what is and what is not regulated.
“The first definition is the definition of a tributary. The old rule included any feature that had a bed, bank and ordinary high-water mark. That included things that only had water in it during rainfall events,” Parrish said in an interview with AFBF’s Newsline. “It is also very clear that wetlands need to be adjacent waters and tributaries that are Waters of the U.S. for them to be regulated, otherwise they’re isolated intrastate waters and they’re regulated at the state level. This rule clarifies all of that.”
The comment period closes April 15.
Farmers and ranchers have an opportunity to tell regulators how the rule impacts their operations, Parrish said.
“This is a real opportunity to push this rule over the finish line. Go out on regulations.gov, find the regulatory docket and submit a comment in support of this rule,” he said. “Maybe explain a little bit about why this rule and the clarity that this rule provides is needed.”
Farmers can also submit comments through Farm Bureau’s Clean Water Rule Advocacy page.
Any thing that eliminates bar ditches or side water ways on roads as rivers and regulated by the federal government has to be better than what was before and also if it clarifies that a row used by irrigation is not a waterway has to be a good idea. The stupidity of the old rules had the federal government controlling water in all aspect on a person’s farm.
Some of the wording seems to just be a redo of the old intent. The Federal government needs to get out of the regulation business in agriculture.