EPA Expands Power by Calling Plowed Farm Fields 'Mini Mountain Ranges'

Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 10/15/2016 | Tom Gantert

[MichCapCon]

When farmers plow their land, it produces grooves called "furrows," bordered by small ridges of dirt.

But in pursuit of new regulatory powers, federal agencies refer to the little dirt mounds by another term: “mini mountain ranges.” That seemingly absurd distinction is being used to impose more federal control over private land use decisions made by U.S. farmers.

That was the claim described in a U.S. Senate committee report released Sept. 20. The committee reviewed the powers held by the nation’s two largest environmental regulation agencies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency, and a proposed regulatory rule.

The rule, called “Waters of the United States,” uses the Clean Water Act to give both federal agencies expanded jurisdiction over private land use decisions. The Senate report suggests the dispute over whether the rule goes beyond what the law authorizes will ultimately be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court. It accuses the federal agencies of playing word games to get around laws in place that restrict their oversight.

The EPA has referred questions to the Department of Justice. The DOJ refuses to comment because the interpretation of the new rule is being challenged in court.

The rule would allow puddles, tire ruts and standing water to be labeled “disturbed wetlands” and regulated under the Clean Water Act. The Senate committee report states the rule would allow EPA to get around legal limits to its authority over ditches, draws, low areas, or other wet areas by simply calling them a “regulated tributary” or “wetland.”

The report concludes that if the EPA and Corps interpretations were allowed, “most if not all plowing” would be considered a “discharge of a pollutant” and require a federal permit.

The Corps is a federal agency overseeing America’s waterways, and states on its website that “environmental sustainability” is a “guiding principle.”

Jason Hayes, the director of environmental policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said the 1977 amendments to the Clean Water Act specifically exempted plowing as a “normal farming activity.”

“The Corps even tries to argue that these newly created small mountain ranges hamper the growth and development of wetland plant species, apparently ignoring the fact that farmlands are managed to produce crops, not cattails,” Hayes said in an email. “No reasonable regulation of the nation’s farmland can demand farmers produce crops without moving dirt, or expect farmers to produce wetland plant species instead of corn or wheat.”

Daren Bakst, a research fellow in agricultural policy at The Heritage Foundation, said it is not surprising that the EPA and Army Corps claim furrowing can create small mountain ranges.

“Does kicking a pebble next to water create a mini-meteor? Is a puddle a mini-ocean? Who knows?” Bakst wrote in an email. “The moral of the story is furrows will mean what they want them to mean until the courts stop them. Of course, Congress should have been stopping this nonsense a long time ago.”

[PGR88]

Tell me - who will stop the FDA, or any other Gov’t Bureaucracy, from their constant, illegal power-grabs?

Any Republicans out there?

Doubt it.

[rfp1234]

This is junk-science corruption that Ceausescu and his wife could only have dreamed of...

[dfwgator]

EPA Soldier: I'm afraid we lost them, sir.

Cargill: Damn it! Well, then you find 'em, and you get 'em back in the dome! And to make sure nobody else gets out, I want roving death squads around the perimeter 24-7! I want 10,000 tough guys, and I want 10,000 soft guys to make the tough guys look tougher! And here's how I want them arranged: tough, soft, tough, tough, soft, tough, soft, soft, tough, tough, soft, soft, tough, soft, tough, soft!

[pause] Soldier: Sir, I'm afraid you've gone mad with power.

Cargill: Of course I have. Have you ever tried going mad without power? It's boring, no one listens to you.

[Secret Agent Man]

ALL the aplhabet agencies need to go.

ALL of them.

Every one.

Only a very few rebuilt from the ground up.

None of the current top and mid level folks can ever work in any govt job, ever again.

[MichaelCorleone]

Absolutely right.

Tough job to be sure, but we’re up for it.

[MichaelCorleone]

Also, I still say Sarah Palin needs some payback, and eliminating one or more of the communist agencies would be sweet revenge, it seems to me.

[Art in Idaho]

I've personally known people who have been destroyed by the EPA.

On Trump's first day of office, he should immediately disband and dismantle the EPA and start over with a bare bones EPA for huge belching smokestacks or some such, i.e. gross violations only of basic water and air violations. Bring back some common sense rather than 'create violations' to keep the bloated bureaucracy going.

[Mr. Douglas]

So, the real question is, when they come by to shake you down, are they wearing body armor?

[KarlInOhio]

I want the EPA to be able to hunt down, fine and possible even imprison those responsible for poisoning rivers with heavy metals and turning them funny colors.

[YogicCowboy]

Communist Redistribution knows no limits: no extreme is too extreme in the name of making all on Earth equally helpless and wretched.

[YogicCowboy]

And who created the communist EPA?

Nixon the RINO (the same RINO who recognized the enemy, Red China, of our ally, Taiwan, by officially visiting it).

It is no wonder that conservatives have not felt represented by the “conservative” party for decades!

[Envisioning]

All department heads in the EPA need to go to prison. Someone has to go to prison.....

[Art in Idaho]

Good One!

[LaRueLaDue]

[...] he should immediately disband and dismantle the EPA and start over with a bare bones EPA for huge belching smokestacks or some such [...]

= = = = =

No need. The individual states have the the ability and responsibility for this. The FedGov is not needed. Disband it entirely.

[DesertRhino]

“The report concludes that if the EPA and Corps interpretations were allowed, “most if not all plowing” would be considered a “discharge of a pollutant” and require a federal permit. “

How are the people that ordered this not found dead in an alley with a pitchfork stuck in them? In 1776 that would have seriously happened.

[nesnah]

Good idea. Let’s keep that on the table.

[tom paine 2]

But look what happened to them in the end.

[Noumenon]

There are people who need to die over this.

[TalBlack]

If this article isn’t satire (I’m assuming that is) then IT is coming.