Posted on 05/27/2015 1:58:42 PM PDT by ThethoughtsofGreg
Earlier today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) finalized a much anticipated rule that would redefine “Waters of the United States” and vastly expand the two agencies’ regulatory authority over the nation’s water resources. EPA and the Corps proposed the rule in April 2014 seeking to clarify precisely what water resources it classified as “navigable” and, thus, able to be regulated under the Clean Water Act (CWA).
The move to redefine “Waters of the United States” comes after the Supreme Court twice checked the agencies’ overly broad interpretation of the CWA in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (2001) and Rapanos v. United States (2006). The two agencies, however, appear to have only doubled down on this broad interpretation by finalizing a rule that gives them even greater regulatory authority over smaller waterways and wetlands, perhaps including even drainage ditches, ephemeral streams or backyard ponds.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanlegislator.org ...
Defund/disband the EPA. It’s a de facto dictatorship.
Under these rules, every time I hang my butt over a toilet, it becomes a navigable waterway.
”… and vastly expand the two agencies’ regulatory authority over the nation’s water resources."
FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument
Wake up patriots. Athough the states do need to protect the nation’s water resources, the states have never delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate the nation’s water resources.
But a consequence of the ill-conceived 17th Amendment, the corrupt Senate failed to stop the delegation of such constitutionally nonexistant powers to the EPA.
The 17th Amendment needs to disappear, and a bunch of corrupt senators along with it.
There is no enumerated power in the Constitution that authorizes the EPA. And what they are doing now destroys the God-given, unalienable property rights of the people. Sink this agency to the bottom of the nearest navigable waterway.
“Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government which impartially secures to every man whatever is his own.”
— James Madison, Essay on Property, 1792
Instead of “Navigable Waters of the United States” is as broad of an overreach in claiming regulatory control over legislative law making as has ever been seen in country's history. While I think these regulations will be codified, I can hope that the Congress will pull the reins back and that the judiciary will see its Constitutional violation (though after Kelo, I have my qualms!)
As far as this rule making is concerned, I am seeing how prescient Ayn Rand [Atlas Shrugged 1957] was when she had an antagonistic government bureaucrat utter an unpleasant truth of control;
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.