You’ve probably heard the old saying, “Enjoy your lunch? Thank a farmer.” Unfortunately, that common sense perspective doesn’t seem to be shared by the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.
The Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama administration hasn’t exactly seen eye-to-eye with farmers and ranchers lately as new rules and new interpretations have led to increased production costs. When the Washington, D.C. bureaucrats arbitrarily drive up the cost of doing business, we all pay more. In fact, if the Washington D.C. regulatory system were a country, it would be the tenth largest economy in the world! It’s time to get the bureaucracy under control before they completely destroy our economy.
EPA’s ridiculous proposals of regulating farm dust or limiting methane gas emissions from cattle have become punchlines, but producers are not laughing at the latest proposed version of the “Waters of the US” rule under the Clean Water Act.
The Clean Water Act of 1972 aimed to make sure rivers and lakes are better protected from runoff from industrial sources of pollution. Since enactment, it has improved our water quality. However, the current regulatory assault coming from the federal government is overreach, pure and simple.
South Dakota farmers and ranchers earn their living from the land – they care about clean water and skies. In South Dakota, most farms and ranches have been in the family for generations. To think a government agency – from the east coast – knows more about clean water and skies than the folks who make their living off the land, is simply not true.
The EPA now wants to re-define and expand the list of what qualifies as “navigable waterways” (which the EPA regulates) outside the current definitions limited to rivers and lakes. Under the proposal, dry streambeds that only hold water when it rains as well as ditches and “self-made” ponds would be included. Compliance with those proposed rules would be costly and violations could run into the thousands of dollars. What’s worse, these federal regulations could make commonsense local water management decisions even more difficult.
As has been the case in the past, the EPA has proposed rules based on what they believe to be best without any real-world input from those who know what really happens out here in farm & ranch country; even our elected officials in Congress have no say. This is about control.
It's about time we start taking back control of our country from the bureaucracy.