Feds stop calling dry land 'water'

WorldNetDaily ^ | Mar 11, 2013 | Bob Unruh

[wesagain]

A lawsuit by a New Mexico couple whose dry, sandy homestead had been classified as a wetland by federal government regulators is being dropped after Washington agreed to stop mislabeling the land.

The Pacific Legal Foundation confirmed today the lawsuit on behalf of Peter and Frankie Smith ended after the federal decision to “stop labeling their dry land as a ‘water of the United States.’”

As WND reported, the couple had been warned by the federal government not to touch trash – tin cans, broken glass and the like – that had accumulated over the years on the 20 acres of desert land, because it could harm the Rio Grande River, 25 miles away. The couple bought the land near Santa Fe to build a retirement home.

The lawsuit claimed Washington was over-reaching in its claim that the land, which does not contain any “relatively permanent, standing or continuously body of water,” can be regulated by the Clean Water Act.

PLF recently won another major private-property rights battle at the U.S. Supreme Court over federal control of water on private property. The justices ruled landowners have a right to contest a summary order to stop using their private land because of federal wetlands regulations.

In the case, the federal government determined land in Priest Lake, Idaho, being used for the construction of a home was “wetlands.” The feds ordered the owners to turn over their records, provide detailed personal information, return the land to its natural state and leave it that way for years before seeking permission to develop it.

The high court said the EPA must provide a process through which a challenge to its decision can be made in a meaningful way. The law firm working on behalf of the land owner called the decision a ......

[nothingnew]

I am on FR quite a lot and would miss much if it were not for multiple posts.

I agree.

FMCDH(BITS)