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Congressman calls WOTUS a ‘bad nightmare’
More than 120 members of Congress sent a letter to the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers last week highlighting concerns about the Biden administration’s announcement that they are revisiting the Waters of the U.S. rule.
“This war on farmers is going to have to stop,” Congressman Sam Graves of Missouri said.
Graves tells Brownfield revisiting WOTUS is a ‘bad nightmare’ and direct assault on farmers.
“This could let the EPA regulate more than 99 percent of the land out there,” he said. “And so, we need to keep this commonsense approach that was implemented in the last administration. It was a very balanced approached, it protected our water, but it also protected private property rights of farmers and ranchers.”
Graves said the Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule provides clarity while the Obama-era rule allowed EPA control over any water with a ‘significant nexus’ which is open to interpretation.
“It could mean anything,” Graves said. “It could be a dry wash; it could be a waterway that you have actually installed yourself.”
Graves said he expects debate over WOTUS to extend from several months to multiple years.
