A federal court in California recently ruled that a nursery owner violated the Clean Water Act by plowing his property and polluting “waters of the United States.” The judge also held that farming activities must be ongoing to avoid certain violations of the Clean Water Act.

Per Agri-Pulse, in Duarte Nursery v. Army Corps of Engineers, the plaintiff received a cease and desist letter from the Army Corps of Engineers claiming he illegally damaged wetlands in prepping his land for cultivation. Receiving no hearing on the matter, the plaintiff sued claiming denial of due process.

The government countersued, charging him with destroying wetlands by “deep ripping” the ground. The officials claim the plaintiff’s digging penetrated wetland ground requiring a permit. The Army Corps also determined the plaintiff “discharged” materials into vernal pools “which are waters of the United States.” Importantly, the Clean Water Act exempts “normal farming activities” from the ban on “discharging dredge and fill material.”

According to Agri-Pulse, the plaintiff’s land had not been farmed in over twenty years. The judge in the case was “not persuaded that, after nearly 24 years of no activity that meets the applicable definition of farming, the tillage and planting of wheat by plaintiffs can be considered a continuation of established and ongoing farming activities.”

The ruling will be appealed. According to the plaintiff’s attorneys at the Pacific Legal Foundation, “the court’s decision amounts to a rule that you may not plow in federally regulated wetlands without an Army Corps permit, the clear exemptions to the contrary notwithstanding.” The Foundation further concluded, “This ruling also raises the stakes for PLF’s ongoing litigation against the new definition of ‘waters of the U.S.’ If farmers need a federal permit to farm in waters of the U.S., then it makes an even greater difference how far this oppressive statute extends.”