The Clean Water Act Hits Home

Property Rights Alliance ^ | 2011-10-20 | J. Michael Wahlen

[92nina]

...The orders do tremendous harm to the economy as well as to people’s lives by preventing them from using their property the way they had intended. This is one reason that the Physical Property Rights ranking by the International Property Rights Index (IPRI) has shown a decline in recent years for the United States.

The great harm that each and everyone one of these “administrative compliance orders” causes has recently been brought home by a couple from Idaho. Mike and Chantell Sackett purchased .63 acres of land for $23,000 in 2005 to build their dream home. Despite being 500 feet from the nearest body of water, and that the EPA’s own land registry did not list the land as a wetland, the EPA ruled that the parcel is a wetland. This prohibited the Sacketts from building their house. To make matters worse, the EPA fined them over $36,000 a day for bringing in gravel and not turning in an annual report on the state of the land. The fine has grown to reach over $40 million. While the Sackett’s have sued the EPA, the courts have ruled that the couple has no right to challenge the decision, and that EPA orders are immune from judicial review.

Currently, the Sacketts live in a rental home next to their property, as they wait for the Supreme Court to hear their case this term. Legal experts are divided as to whether or not the Sacketts are likely to win their appeal. Hopefully, however, the Supreme Court will end this abuse by the government, sending a clear signal that property rights are still upheld strongly here in the U.S.

To learn more about the Sackett’s story, and to see where the case is now, click here for a video by Mark Hyman, ...

[92nina]

"The Property Rights Alliance has long been concerned about the power given to the government by the Clean Water Act (CWA)..."

Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at Digg and at Reddit and in Stumbleupon and Delicious

[Darksheare]

So you've decided to sit this Freepathon out, eh?

Aren't you Precious.

For those who support FR, click here to show it!
For the perpetually offended, click here instead.

[lowbridge]

the courts have ruled that the couple has no right to challenge the decision, and that EPA orders are immune from judicial review.

WTF

[92nina]

Horrifying and shocking, yet given how the gov’t behaves, somehow not.

[UCANSEE2]

Now I know why the EPA has a SWAT team.

[sbMKE]

EPA actually has a list of most-wanted fugitives.

[MeganC]

“EPA actually has a list of most-wanted fugitives.”

It’d be fitting if there was also a list of most-wanted EPA thugs.

[bgill]

Here, people who have riverside properties are having to disconnect their water pumps from the river or be fined by the water authority. Much of this land has had pumps for 4-5 generations. It didn't stop there. They are now talking about charging people's own personal wells that are not adjacent to the river but pull water from aquifers. They already license septic tanks, require personal wells to be registered, and must approve houseplans and indoor plumbing fixtures. We can hardly take a *** without them sending out an investigator to stick his nose in it.