Rule would have detrimental effect

To the editor:
If you are a farmer, homeowner, developer, business owner or local elected official, now is the time to submit comments to the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers challenging their expanded definition of “waters of the U.S.”
You can learn more and take action by visiting http://www.ifbtakeaction.org.
After years of expanding interpretations, costly enforcement actions and U.S. Supreme Court decisions defining EPA’s authority as Congress intended it, in April the two agencies issued a proposed rule. The proposed rule is supposed to provide clarity and reduce agency authority consistent with U.S. Supreme Court decisions, but the agencies are proposing a rule that is anything but clear and considerably broadens their regulatory reach.
Farm Bureau and other groups representing citizens from all walks of life have attempted to get EPA to more clearly explain its intent and what the rule means.
Instead of a clear explanation we’ve been given agency doublespeak that sharply conflicts with the expansive authority of the rule. In fact, the rule is so bad that the House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation to restrict the ability of EPA and the Corps to regulate “waters” which are generally dry land. That’s right — they are trying to regulate dry land such as areas that have water present only when it rains. It’s hardly the “navigable waters” that Congress intended when they wrote the Clean Water Act.
We all want clean water. Clean water is achieved by working with people to find real solutions to real problems. This proposed rule simply creates government bureaucracy that keeps everyone from focusing on positive things that can be done.
For more information, visit http://www.infarmbureau.org/waterrule, and be sure to submit your comments by Oct. 20.
If adopted, this rule will affect your livelihood forever.
Don Villwock
Indiana Farm Bureau President