Posted on 07/19/2011 8:04:17 AM PDT by 92nina
...A letter signed by 40 House members explained the basis for their opposition: “When an agency acts to change the rights of an individual, we believe that the agency must go through the formal rulemaking process. We respectfully request you abandon any further action on this guidance document.”
The Property Rights Alliance has long opposed these expansions of EPA power, arguing to the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee in 2010 that the changes “Will not ensure the cleanliness of these waters, but merely serve as another bureaucratic barrier for citizens who wish to use land for development.”
Organizations such as the Heritage Foundation have also noted that these guidelines presented significant problems for property-owners as well as businesses. The simple act of draining or modifying a small pond on your property could, under the proposed changes, provoke EPA intervention. Indeed, Heritage notes that the proposed expansion could: “turn the Clean Water Act into what some analysts believe to be the most dangerous federal intrusion on private property rights in existence.” Indeed, documents supporting the expansion specifically mention the regulation of “mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, natural ponds…” – essentially covering virtually any form of consistent water that a property-owner might have on their land.
The bill passed by the house on Wednesday could stop this expansion of EPA power dead in its tracks. The passage of this bill is a positive step for property rights against government intrusion. The Senate and the White House should take note.
(Excerpt) Read more at propertyrightsalliance.org ...
Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at at Digg and at Reddit and in Stumbleupon and Delicious
It is time for the Republicans to throw down the gauntlet at these “Mandarin” bureaucrats, by making it clear if they even *try* to institute such policies, NOT ONLY are they going to be reversed by act of congress, but that EVERYONE INVOLVED WILL BE FIRED.
That is, out on the street, working for a living.
And finally, that their agency or bureaucratic organization is going to be punished for its arrogance, not just with budget cutbacks, but with affirmative limitations on the future authority of that agency, and even consideration whether that agency should be absorbed into a different agency, or eliminated altogether.
THIS MEANS YOU, EPA. Likewise, the shotgun-toting Department of Education, the money diverting Department of Transportation, the land grabbing Department of the Interior, etc., etc.
YOU WILL CEASE AND DESIST.
HAve to say that I agree. And you’re right about the shotgun-toting Department of Education, they seem to have their own SWAT force; if more people default on student loans, the DoE will be hiring...
It is already there.
Very poorly written article. Congress is NOT just the House.
EPA has been running wild regulating wetlands for years. Is there any chance the Senate will pass this? NO. So Obama will not have to veto it.
Wetland regulation has not even depended upon there being water there merely once had water or occasionally has water was enough.
HA....I live on a corner lot.....years ago, the county dug up the road next to my side lot, and put in an 8’ diameter sewer pipe...the property, over the years, has settled, leaving a depression that is constantly filled with water and breeds misquitoes...I asked the county to have it backfilled, and told them just to dump the dirt and I would spread it and seed it myself....they, and I, cannot do a thing, as this area now has to be reviewed to see if it is wetlands...it is 25’ wide by 60’ long......and when I asked the county to dump dirt, and that I would spread it, they said they would have to first get a permit, then dump it, then bring in a crew with a tractor to spread it, then get an inspector to sign off on it, then get a crew with a hydroseeder to seed it, then have another crew maintain it for a year......all union employees drawing union wages...
dirt is not THAT expensive- fill it yourself?
still need an epa review ( shhhhhh... i have already been doing that )..
I think I would accidentally trip and spill about one gallon of vegetable oil in the middle of this “wet land” Should slow the skeeters down anyway
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