The legislation is known as the “Clean Water Restoration Act.”
(GOLDEN, Co.) – Legislation quietly moving forward in the U.S. Congress would expand the federal government’s control over U.S. waters to such an extent that even periodically wet ground would come under federal hegemony, a group of business leaders is warning.
“This bill represents one of the most expansive power grabs by the federal government over state and local control in memory,” said Jim Sims, President and CEO of the Western Business Roundtable. “The extent to which this bill puts states and their water resources under the thumb of the federal government is simply astounding.”
“This bill would give federal agencies domain over virtually every wet area in the nation. It will fundamentally erode the ability of citizens, and state governments in particular, to manage our own water resources. It would cause an avalanche of new un-funded mandates to envelop state and local governments.”
Sims added: “It will make it more costly to grow crops, provide water to cities, operate and maintain water storage and delivery facilities, produce energy (including renewable power), build and maintain public transportation systems, deliver affordable goods and services to consumers and carry out virtually any activity that occurs on the land without federal agencies constantly threatening to interfere.”
The legislation, known as the “Clean Water Restoration Act,” is sponsored by Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) in the House (H.R. 2421) and Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.) in the Senate (S. 1870).
The bill’s sponsors contend U.S. waters are threatened due to Supreme Court decisions in 2001 and 2006 that clarified which waters fall under federal jurisdiction. But by changing the Clean Water Act’s jurisdictional sweep from regulation of “navigable waters” to “waters of the United States,” the bill would have “a devastating impact on Western state sovereignty and virtually every citizen in our region,” Sims said.
“There is virtually no business or job-creating activity in the nation that would not be adversely affected by this bill,” he added.
The Roundtable sent a letter to Congress earlier this week outlining its concerns about bill. It pointed out that the bill:
* Would expand the regulatory reach of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers to include essentially all arguably wet areas (or areas wet at some time) in the U.S., giving the federal government jurisdiction over groundwater, ditches, pipes, streets, gutters and desert features.
* Would expand the legal basis for the Clean Water Act, moving it beyond the current jurisdiction under the “commerce clause” in the U.S. Constitution, which limits congressional authority over water to the ability to regulate commerce. The new legislation would make congressional authority over any U.S. water virtually unlimited.
* Would essentially grant EPA and the Corps a veto over local land-use policies. Any activity involving water could be affected, including commercial and residential real estate development, agriculture, electric transmission, transportation, mining and energy development – even recreational activities.
* Would eliminate existing regulatory limitations that allow common sense uses such as prior converted cropland and waste treatment systems. Currently, the CWA’s rules acknowledge limitations covering those elements.
* Would implement an expanded definition of waters that would burden state and local governments both administratively and financially. A broad expansion of the CWA’s jurisdiction would put un-funded mandates on those entities, including requirements to adopt water quality standards (including monitoring and reporting).
* Would also impact land-use plans, floodplain regulations, building and other codes, watershed and storm water plans, and likely delay development of new projects and maintenance of existing infrastructure.
* Would cause water providers, landowners and water-use entities’ liability risk to grow.
Sims added that, under an expanded CWA, citizen suit liability and exposure for attorneys fees awards would increase for all landowners with water features on or near their properties. Similar concerns and risks would be faced by all water delivery and water-use entities.
The Roundtable said it has launched a region wide effort to build opposition to the bill.
3 responses so far ↓
JK // October 31, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Nice reprint of the Home builders talking points – real journalism going on here.
It’s nice to see that this blog purely has the interest of greedy corporate fat cats rather than those of hard working tax payers who want clean water resources for recreation, drinking water sources, and sound habitat for sportsmen like myself.
What a load of crap.
pjwalker911 // October 31, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Wow, must be that time of the month for you huh….
“Sportsman”? Evokes the rustic huntsman, but methinks yer just a tad bit embarrassed to say what you actually are. Let me guess. You are a liberal yuppie kayaker and a card-carrying propaganda-spouting Sierra Club member with a crush on Hillary Clinton (willing to look the other way on her chickenhawk war-mongering stance), who worships Al Gore and believes that global warming is man-made as a religious article of faith. Right?
Now, what part of “This bill would give federal agencies domain over virtually every wet area in the nation. It will fundamentally erode the ability of citizens, and state governments in particular, to manage our own water resources” do you not understand?
This act will make everything more costly to citizens because its not about the environment dude. We got along fine with states controlling their own water-supplies and negotiating with other states as required, for the last 230 years or so, but oh no, now we just have to make radical sweeping changes all for reasons you fail to specify, but which are obvious. This is just to make us more and more dependent on the federal feudal government with it’s hand on the spigot dictating to local communities what they can and can’t do with their own resources. It is also another way to undermine private property which they are gradually phasing out for the new form of existence they have planned for us.
In addition, it is a nationwide land-grab because the wording is vague enough to include all lands where rain might fall, which is just about every square inch of land in the US. It is part of the bigger overall restructuring of the North American Union (SPP) where the feds will increasingly control and constrain all resources and lands to take them out of the hands of the people and put them to the service of their larger plans which public is never informed of or allowed to comment on.
The final Agenda 21 goal is to get most of the serfs off the land and into the compact cities to further strengthen their choke-hold on Americans before they exterminate them (see End Game), but I realize that will take time, so be patient. I know you are eager to see them carry out their plan, but I guess you’ll just have to wait.
By the way, there is nothing wrong with reposting articles from wherever one finds them. It is called Fair Use and thousands of bloggers and websites do it every single day.
Next.
Cody // August 13, 2008 at 7:06 am
The water Restoration actually does more then the citizens realize it actually gives the govnt control over your property even if your hundreds of miles from any navigable water.They have by passed all of what congress originally passed for clean water act. I had some horrible dealings with the Army Corps and i tried to stand up for my land rights and they did as usual and pounded me and shut down my company of 15 years over a neighbors complaint because the previous owner wouldnt sell to them. I got permission to get power from that neighbors mom and then he started calling and saying i ws filling 80 to 100 truck loads a day and it never happened i logged my personal property and thats a exempted activity, the ditches all matched and tree lines and stumps are still there yet the only proof i filled was i changed the foot print of my property, well they cant even do the math they tried to say i filled 3 acres 1.5 foot well thats close to 60thousand cubic yards of fill pretty hard for one person to clean up 3 acres of logs and fill that much even though my topo shows 1.6 foot above sea level and the property is still 1.6 foot above sea level and the ditches has 30 year old trees thru it and roots to match and the stumps are still there and visible so if i went thru this over a neighbors spite full complaint just imagine what the Federal govnts going to do when they feel they can control all wet property in the United States ,this all came from the Rapanos vs. United States verdict.
It was suggested a definition be done by the EPA and Army Corps and wow now they managed to get control over everything and if you look at how the Govnt has worked with this, they make the rules up as they go.
Man made ditches suddenly are called naturalized or tributaries
Adjacent now means hundreds of miles away from the nearest navigable water way
And heck if you disturb any dirt your polluting the waters of the US even though nothing makes it to the water.
This is disturbing at best and now the Water Restoration Act Gives even more control over our properties.
We need to stand up and get back to for the people by the people not the Govnt Running our own property and taking our constitutional rights like the right to own property whats the purpose of owning it if the Govnt controls it.
http://www.StoptheArmyCorps.com