Posted on 06/11/2012 11:56:23 AM PDT by lowbridge
Lawmakers are working to block an unprecedented power grab by the Environmental Protection Agency to use the Clean Water Act (CWA) and control land alongside ditches, gullies and other ephemeral spots by claiming the sources are part of navigable waterways.
These temporary water sources are often created by rain or snowmelt, and would make it harder for private property owners to build in their own backyards, grow crops, raise livestock and conduct other activities on their own land, lawmakers say.
“Never in the history of the CWA has federal regulation defined ditches and other upland features as ‘waters of the United States,’” said Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), the ranking committee member, and Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio), chairman of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.
“This is without a doubt an expansion of federal jurisdiction,” the lawmakers said in a May 31 letter to House colleagues.
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
Just a couple of rabbits caught in the mower.....happens all the time...........
Ah yes, the four branches of gov’t; Executive, Legislative, Judicial and Regulatory.
Here in King County, Washington you need to get a permit to put a rain barrel under your downspout. (I think it has to do because it is so dry here in Seattle!).
The guy up the road was working on filling in the dry ditch in his front yard to give him some extra room for parking. A city truck happened to see him, and told him he couldn’t as it was the headwaters of the creek a half-mile away. (There is a spring about 500’ “upstream” from his ditch, but soaks into the soil about 30’ downstream of the spring. The ditch is dry year round).
I mentioned to the new owner the story when he was preparing to fill it in. He waited until the weekend to do it. So a lot of these rules are already in place.
Of course if the U.N. is in charge of them, just wait until they pass some rule that says “no firearms within 2000 feet of any U.N. peace zone” or something.
Liberal politicians should be clubbed over the head like a baby seal with these types of issues.
Might be of interest.
” “no firearms within 2000 feet of any U.N. peace zone” “
That would sure cause sales of scopes to skyrocket....
I’d bet that on a multiple choice test for high schoolers, your “regulatory” would get as many hits as the three correct ones.
ALL YOUR PROPERTY ARE BELONG TO GOVERNMENT
Nor do I. Furthermore, if the Dept. of Ed. has swat teams, how far behind can the EPA be, if they are behind at all.
If citizens resort to civilized methods like the courts, the agencies have virtually unlimited resources to fight back. Sure, citizens occasionally win and the EPA retaliates by releasing a new flurry of regulations. I hear a lot of people talk big about resisting, but when push comes to shove, they see they are outgunned and back down.
I agree with your conclusion; this is not a sane world.
As so many have remarked here, this is government over-reach, YET IT KEEPS HAPPENING! When asked why I am in favor of smaller government, this is my answer, the fewer government employees, the fewer there are to create new regulations and intepretations of laws.
When the Social Security Act was passed by FDR, no one envisioned ‘Supplemental SSI’ or any of its variations. When the ‘Endangered Species Act’ was passed, all people thought about were Bald Eagles and the such. Now there are fungi that meet this protection. These same expansions apply to most government acts and do not come from anything but logical progression of an apparent need.
Having said this about past laws and how they have expanded, NOW think about what it will look like in 20 years of full implementation of Health Care and ‘Dodd-Frank’. The trend is not our friend! See my tag-line!
The 2” fish is not the real issue. It’s only what the fed says.
The farmers’ bankruptcies tell the feds that their policies are working. They want to get rid of all private farms so they can easily control the food supply through governement run farms with peasant labor.
Unelected fascists are taking more power illegally, and under the guise of
some idiotic law that allows this BS if they deem it necessary for children
or whatever necessity they can spin up.
The idea here is for the EPA to make as many regulations (LAWS) possible to
make it impossible to piecemeal them to the supreme court. They believe that
it would take decades to stop just a few laws while they are enacting hundreds per month.
Congress not having the fortitude to do anything is the only way to stop
them, and the question is when or ever.
Nothing new really. When I worked for a retirement housing development company in the early 1990s the company was developing a project in Massachusetts near what had been a horse farm. A ground along a long used bridle path bordering the road to our site was depressed from decades of horse traffic. Because water collected there after heavy rains, state EPA officials ruled it to be a waterway. We were thus forced to purchase easements to build an alternative entrance to our site least we impeded this waterway.
I’m no civil engineer, but I’m pretty sure those ditches that run along people’s front yards are there for a reason. They basically take the place of a storm drain. If you fill it in, the water will collect there and could run off into the street, other properties, etc. Private property is one thing, but the front several feet of your property is a pseudo public right of way.
You wrote: “The EPA is totally out of control and must be stopped.”
All Freepers need to look up “Agenda 21” and what the UN and Globalists are attempting to do.
Our County Republican Party is sponsoring an expert and frequent speaker about Agenda 21.
You all should do the same!
OK, here’s the rule: if they want to designate it a navigable waterway, the official in question is required to navigate it in a vessel of sufficient size to be used in commerce. No portage allowed.
It must'a been one of them newfangled "smart" trucks!
;^)
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