The Obama administration on Wednesday announced that it will finalize a controversial Environmental Protection Agency regulation — one that would give the government control over small waterways such as wetlands, streams, puddles and drainage ditches — despite healthy opposition from landowners, businesses and the agricultural community.
The rule, unveiled in March 2014, has been billed by regulators as an attempt to simplify and clarify which waterways are covered by the Clean Water Act and which ones aren’t.
“For the water in the rivers and lakes in our communities that flow to our drinking water to be clean, the streams and wetlands that feed them need to be clean too,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said Wednesday. “Protecting our water sources is a critical component of adapting to climate change impacts like drought, sea level rise, stronger storms, and warmer temperatures — which is why EPA and the Army have finalized the Clean Water Rule to protect these important waters, so we can strengthen our economy and provide certainty to American businesses.”
Administration officials argue that the need to act was created by Supreme Court decisions in recent years that created questions about the EPA’s authority over small bodies of water.
But opponents of the measure say the new regulations go far beyond clarification. They argue that the new water rules will increase EPA authority over vast swaths of private property with the help of broad language giving environmental regulators new authority to scrutinize business and agricultural activities near very small bodies of water and even dry creek beds.
The American Farm Bureau said of the rules last fall: “The proposed rule provides none of the clarity and certainty it promises. Instead, it creates confusion and risk by providing the agencies with almost unlimited authority to regulate, at their discretion, any low spot where rainwater collects, including common farm ditches, ephemeral drainages, agricultural ponds, and isolated wetlands found in and near farms and ranches across the nation.”
The EPA’s water rule has been stalled for months due to opposition and Capitol Hill Republicans’ vows to fight the regulatory changes. The administration’s move Wednesday signals that the water rules are now finalized and on the fast track to implementation.
In anticipation of further GOP attacks on the new rules, White House officials have portrayed opponents of the rules are fighting clean, safe water for millions of Americans.
According to Obama environmental adviser Brian Deese, only “polluters who want to threaten our clean water” oppose the rules.
Despite the Obama administration smear campaign, GOP lawmakers have again vowed to fight the EPA rule change which they see as a major threat to agribusiness and private land throughout the nation.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said that lawmakers are currently working on legislation that would require the EPA to reverse and rewrite its new water rules.
“The EPA has set themselves up to increase federal control over private lands, and I will not allow it,” Inhofe said in a statement, later adding: “Our committee is planning for a markup on S. 1140 this summer, as we continue our work to halt EPA’s unprecedented land grab and refocus its job on protecting traditional navigable waters from pollution.”
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) also vowed a strong GOP response to the EPA rules in his chamber.
“The administration’s decree to unilaterally expand federal authority is a raw and tyrannical power grab that will crush jobs,” Boehner said.
He continued: “These leaders know firsthand that the rule is being shoved down the throats of hardworking people with no input, and places landowners, small businesses, farmers, and manufacturers on the road to a regulatory and economic hell.”
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