Agriculture lawmakers and lobbyists charge that the Environmental Protection Agency’s continued efforts to enforce its Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule, is endangering the very practice of farming.
A California farmer has decided to take on the EPA in court over whether he violated WOTUS by plowing his land and leaving potholes in his tire tracks. A federal appeals court put WOTUS on hold across the country last year, but that didn’t stop the Army Corps of Engineers from requiring permits on the California case, despite Clean Water Act exemptions for normal farming activities.
Here’s National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Scott Yager.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee issued a report last week detailing the EPA’s and Army Corps WOTUS efforts, something EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy hinted earlier her agency would do, short of violating the federal court injunction.
(From the National Association of Farm Broadcasters News Service)