After seeing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final version of the controversial Waters of the U.S. Rule on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) expressed his concerns and his lack of faith in the EPA’s actions.
“As we take time to review this final rule, I am deeply skeptical that this will amount to anything more than an attack on Louisiana agriculture,” Boustany said. “Time and again, the administration has failed to take into account stakeholder concerns and real, on-the-ground impacts for farmers and small businesses.”
The issue has been an ongoing concern since March 2014, when the EPA originally issued the Waters of the U.S. Rule under the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act. In doing so, the EPA granted itself unlimited authority over almost all bodies of water, including drainage ditches and farm ponds where rainwater collects. Farmers in Louisiana and around the nation have expressed concern that this rule would give the EPA jurisdiction over minute, non-navigable bodies of water, which the original law did not provide.
Since then, legislators have been hard at work in an effort to block implementation of the rule. Along with over 100 fellow lawmakers, Boustany co-sponsored the Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act in January 2015, requiring the EPA and other federal agencies to scrap this rule, consult with state and local entities, and come up with a new proposal requiring congressional approval. In April, the House passed the Energy and Water Appropriations bill for fiscal 2016, which includes language that prevents the federal government from funding activities to implement the EPA’s rule.
The House also passed the Regulatory Integrity Protection Act on May 12, which requires the EPA to withdraw the Waters of the U.S. Rule within 30 days and forces the agency to work through local stakeholders in a transparent and accountable process to create a revised version.
“The House has taken action to defund the implementation of this rule and force the agency to rescind it – it’s time for the Senate to act,” Boustany said. “Louisiana’s farmers and small businesses are depending on it.”