Posted March 20, 2015
Farmers and leaders from agriculture and government agencies expressed their concerns about the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule at a House Agriculture Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee, according to an Agri-Pulse article available here. Brownfield Ag News also published an article hereand Hoosier Ag Today here.
Members on one panel spoke on behalf of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, National Association of Counties, National Association of State Foresters and Association of Clean Water Administrators.
A second panel included representatives of the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Waters Advocacy Coalition, and the Pennsylvania Rural Electric Association, and farmers raising crops and livestock in Mississippi and Illinois.
Steve Foglesong, an Illinois livestock and crop farmer, said his main concern is the rule’s lack of clarity, according to Brownfield Ag News.
“We hear about exemptions that are there but until we’ve seen it in print—and probably more importantly, seen it in action—we’re not going to understand exactly how it’s supposed to affect us,” said Foglesong.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told the National Farmers Union that she is renaming the Waters of the U.S. rule the Clean Water Rule, according to Hoosier Ag Today.
McCarthy said that she wishes EPA would have done a better job with its Clean Water Rule by calling it WOTUS instead of the Clean Water Rule, being more clear about what EPA was and was not proposing, and talking to farmers and others before EPA put out the interpretive rule.
For more information on the Clean Water Act, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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