By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — A new proposed rule, which actually is an old rule renewed, has emerged that supporters say would protect the nation’s water supply, but opponents contend would give the EPA too much power.
The Waters of the United States proposal has returned under the Biden Administration much to the dismay of Republican Congressman Sam Graves.
“It’s just a bad nightmare, continuing or starting all over again,” Graves tells St. Joseph Post. “And I thought we had put this to bed.”
Graves fought the rule, commonly called WOTUS, during the Obama Administration and thought had arrived at a resolution two years ago, clearly defining and limiting the EPA jurisdiction over waterways.
“And here we go again, they’re going to come back and open that up, make it as vague as possible, which means the EPA could have jurisdiction over every square inch of ground that a farmer or rancher is going to use,” according to Graves.
Opponents contend the Clean Water Act limits the EPA jurisdiction to navigable waters and Congress never intended it to be expanded beyond that. Those who favor WOTUS say the EPA must be given jurisdiction to water sources that feed navigable waters.
WOTUS was first proposed by the Obama Administration. Court battles kept it from ever being implemented.
Graves claims input is missing in the latest process to implement the rule.
“It’s absolutely missing,” Graves says. “They aren’t asking the stakeholders and that’s the landowners what their thought is and how it’s going to impact them. They are just moving forward with this rule change.”
Graves says WOTUS violates the Takings Clause of the Constitution’s 5th Amendment.
“This is truly a takings,” Graves asserts. “It’s a takings issue, taking the use of that property that farmers and ranchers have been producing on for generations, hundreds of years, and saying you can’t do that anymore, because we’ve determined that we have jurisdiction over it.”
Graves favors the Navigable Waters Protection Rule implemented during the Trump Administration, which limits EPA jurisdiction to navigable waters under the Clean Water Act.