By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter
What areas should the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have authority over through the Clean Water Act? EPA is encouraging everyone involved with agriculture to weigh in on its proposal to revise the embattled Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule.
The EPA and U.S. Department of the Army will host 11 sessions to give those affected by WOTUS an opportunity to weigh in on the revised definition of the rule.
“EPA is committed to an open and transparent process for reviewing the definition of ‘waters of the United States,’” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said. “Receiving input from across the country will help us make informed decisions as we move through our two-step process that will return power to the states and to provide regulatory certainty to our nation’s farmers and businesses.”
The two-hour long teleconferences are tailored to specific sectors and will be held each Tuesday for 10 weeks from noon to 2 p.m. Central.
The teleconference for those involved in agriculture will be held Oct. 17. Registration closes Tuesday, Oct. 10, at http://bit.ly/WOTUSREGISTER.
A teleconference for the general public will follow Tuesday, Nov. 21. Registration closes the Tuesday before.
For those unable to sit in on the conference, comments can be submitted on the revised rule at https://www.epa.gov/wotus-rule until Sept. 27.
The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) urges farmers, ranchers and dairymen to submit comments in favor of ditching the current, flawed rule and rewriting the definition of WOTUS.
“Those laws in those regulations were so broad, in fact, that it allowed the agency to blur the distinction between regulating water and land use, or in other words, allowed the agency to regulate land use by just claiming the land was water. So, it was really problematic for farmers and ranchers,” Don Parrish, AFBF senior director of Regulatory Relations, said.
WOTUS gave EPA broad regulatory authority over all waters, including areas that only occasionally held water—like ditches and low-lying fields.
The rule gave EPA the ability to restrict how farmers and ranchers worked by requiring permits for traditional farm work and threatening fines for those who worked without permission.
The rule was stayed by a judge in October 2015. In March 2017, President Donald Trump issued an executive order tasking the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers with rewriting the rule to give a clearer definition of WOTUS.
Since that time, environmental groups have pushed for support of the current, wide-ranging, rule.
“It is equally important to have our voices heard,” Parrish said. “This rule had a detrimental impact on the farmer’s ability to utilize his land, and we think it is critical that farmers submit comments in support of withdrawing this rule.”
Comments may be submitted through AFBF at http://bit.ly/AFBFWOTUS.
Pruitt said he hopes to publish a new water rule between the end of 2017 and the second quarter of 2018.
The revised rule announcement in the Federal Register can be read here.