Environmental Protection Agency officials are admitting they made some mistakes with their "waters of the United States rule." "I want to tell you up front that I wish we had done a better job of rolling out our clean water rule," EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told the National Farmers Union earlier this year.
She and other EPA officials seem to view the problem as a public relations challenge. Many U.S. senators, both Democrats and Republicans, see the situation differently. They view the EPA plan as an attempt by the agency to force draconian new rules on Americans.
Take the case of an Alaska company that planned to apply for a water use permit from the EPA. Agency officials began work on rejecting it before it was filed – before they even had a plan to consider. Or consider Lois Ault, who took the EPA to court after it threatened to drive her out of business with fines because of storm water runoff from her chicken farm. She won.
Then there is the saga of Michael and Chantell Sackett, who wanted to build a new home in Idaho. The EPA told them they had broken the law by placing fill on their lot – and had no right to appeal the agency’s ruling. The Supreme Court disagreed.
Now, bills in both the Senate and House of Representatives would limit the agency’s ability to decide – sometimes without evidence – a water pollution problem exists and must be prevented or rectified. These bills deserve careful consideration.
