The federal government wants to call the dirt kicked up by plowing "mini mountain ranges" so it can expand its regulatory power. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Posted on 10/18/2016 5:02:34 PM PDT by LibWhacker
Federal rule could impose wetland permit mandates on plowing a field
The federal government wants to call the dirt kicked up by plowing "mini mountain ranges" so it can expand its regulatory power. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
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.”
Stalin do this in the’30’s to kill 30 + million, Hillary’s hero, and the result of a corrupt Congress that WILL NOT enforce it’s constitutional duty...
The EPA will ban all farming and tell you to go to Safeway for all your food needs.
"Oh, I have a mini mountain range on my property? I'm concerned. Why don't you come out and have a look."
Several days later as the EPA person and farmer are walking around the property...
"So, you are a liberal arts graduate from out East?"
"Yes. I'm a graduate of (enter "studies" here). Why are those pigs so crazy?
"Watch your step. That muddy hill is.....oh boy, looks like another one fell down the hill..."
(from the farm house)"Honey, is there a problem?"
"No, just feeding the pigs."
This article smells like a trap.
Tire ruts fill with water when it rains, so then we have a wetland??? Really???
Farmers plow fields and the furrows are actually mini mountain ranges???
I am often surprised at the nonsense which bureaucrats come up with. I think you need an advanced degree from an ekite liberal college, in order to have the thought process to make this crap up.
While a pile of DNC bus dump.
The EPA must be disbanded!
Remember. Nixon gave us this piece of trash.
The courts have already ruled on what constitutes “waters of the United States”. These tyrants just refuse to abide.
Communist governments of the past owned all the land. The Neo-communists today are just neo-fascists who want own and maintain the land. No they just want to control all the land.
The EPA should be disbanded and all their employees should be banned from any gov’t work, same for the Corps, who has left their good history and morphed into something we don’t need.
Nothing that higher tariffs on imported ag products can’t fix.
I know Trump will have a lot on his plate, but how tough is it to order a couple dozen US marshals to put chains and padlocks on the doors of every EPA office building in the country?
This is doable, I believe Barry calls it an `EO’.
Man ... writing gender neutral is a real PITA!
EPA was brought into being by an EO. It can be taken out the same way if we have a president with the guts to do it.
There’s only one answer to the question of what to do to restore sanity to our government system, and that’s to eliminate all of the departments along with their supporting bureaucracies the Democrats have instilled in the system.
Virtually none of those departments are required by the constitution. The departments, and bureaucracies are for the purpose of maintaining Democrat power over the system by having their own in constant control of the functions of governance. No other reason period.
YES!
The “Waters of the United States,” act is very real and very onerous.
The title of the article however is misleading.
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