Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Washington DC are taking aim at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Waters of the United States rule that gives them and the Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction over the management of all water. This includes ponds, streams, creeks, marshes on farms and ranches so it appears that any time the landowner wants to control water on their property they have to first check with the federal government.
Nebraska 3rd District Congressman Adrian Smith says this would have a huge impact here. He says, “Now they are calling it the Clean Water Rule stipulated that it is only applies to manageable waters. That is pretty clear but now the EPA said that isn’t clear enough. Already this is causing problems in small towns trying to manage their own run-off. They can do that simply. They have their own engineers. They can get the job done without checking in with the federal government.”
Congressman Smith goes on to say there are a lot of unknown factors here and an overreach of the federal government.
The U-S House of Representatives passed legislation this month to block the rule and he is hoping the U-S Senate will follow suit.