Senator Pans EPA Rule As Threat To Municipalities, Water Utilities

An influential U.S. senator is calling on Congress to block a rule proposed by federal agencies that he frames as posing a threat to water utilities.

“It’s time to come together to protect farmers, ranchers, water utilities, local governments, and contractors by giving them the clarity and certainty they deserve and stopping EPA and the Corps from eroding traditional exemptions,” said Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-OK, in a statement last week.

The long-running controversy over the proposal from the U.S. EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, an update to the Clean Water Act, flared up again in Congress when Inhofe released an analysis by his committee’s Republican staff highlighting their view on problems with the rule. The rule is not currently enforceable while it remains tied up in the courts.

The EPA argues that the “waters of the United States” rule (WOTUS) is necessary to protect waterways and because Supreme Court decisions make it unclear what the agency may regulate under the Clean Water Act.

The Senate Republican report dug into the policy implications of the rule, particularly for farmers, who are strongly opposed to the new regulation. The report claims that the rule would give the federal government jurisdiction over inconsequential collections of water, including puddles in parking lots.

The report warned that the rule would give the federal government authority over rainwater collected in small pits dug to test soil structure. It also argued that, under the new rule, the mere presence of water in soil could give the government an inroad to argue that it has jurisdiction over groundwater on the property.

Inhofe “wants his Democratic colleagues to turn their back on an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency water regulation and commit to working on new legislation in light of the report he commissioned that found agency overreach in interpreting the new rule,” The Washington Examiner reported.

The EPA says on its website advocating for the rule that the proposal does not do the following things:

• Protect any types of waters that have not historically been covered by the Clean Water Act.
• Add any new requirements for agriculture.
• Interfere with or change private property rights.
• Regulate most ditches.
• Change policy on irrigation or water transfers.
• Address land use.
• Cover erosional features such as gullies, rills and non-wetland swales.
• Include groundwater, shallow subsurface flow and tile drains.

Oral arguments in one of the challenges to the rule are set for November in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, according to the Examiner.

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