Trump Admin. Ends Puddle Grab

Timothy Birdnow

Good news!  You now own your own puddle again.

Dr. Jay Lehr tells us the Trump Adminislration has rescinded the Obama policy of calling drainage ditches "navigable waters".

From the article:

The outraged property owners , farmers and trade groups won a nationwide stay of the amended CWA in 2015 by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals only to have it overturned by the Supreme Court in January of 2018.

It mattered not how far from a stream your puddle existed. Five miles, ten miles or more, that water and the land containing it was no longer in your control. Anything you wished to do on that land required approval from EPA and in most cases the hiring of consulting engineers to fill out applications to satisfy the stringent requirements initiated by EPA.

This regulation has wreaked havoc on farmers and ranchers desiring to alter the drainage on their property. In the process of suing those breaking this law, EPA has destroyed families and bankrupted businesses. I have met some of these unfortunate people, all the more unfortunate if they chose to fight this egregiously over reaching government agency.

On December 12 of 2018 the Environmental Protection Agency under the direction of Trump’s new Administrator, Andrew Wheeler, along with the Army Corps of Engineers proposed a clear, understandable, and implementable definition of "waters of the United States that clarifies Federal authority under the Clean Water Act. Unlike the Obama administrations 2015 directive, the new proposal contains a straight forward definition that precludes control over the puddle in my backyard or yours. Final wording of the new rules that will amend the Clean Water Act should be complete early in 2020.

I don't like it; the supposedly "right wing" SCOTUS should have declared this policy an abomination. As it stands, the President giveth and a future President can taketh away. This is only a temporary fix to a long term struggle.

But just think what would have happened had Hillary Clinton won the Presidency and cemented the Obama policy in place.

The hydrological cycle, like the atmosphere, is the ultimate in elastic clauses; it can be used to justify any and every power grab. We share water as we share air, and both are being used as tools to destroy free markets and private property.

But I'll take a win when I can get one. This is indeed good news.

I had feared the tire ruts I put in my logging trail road at the Ozark Hilton would wind me up in hot water with the EPA; those ruts filled with water when it rained. I could have lost my land over that.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 12:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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