ISSUES AND POLICY
Waters of the United States, Up for Grabs
Final determination of land use will be left to the “best professional judgment” of the regulator
By Bob McCan, president, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
J.D.
ALEXANDER, A PAST PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), was
fond of saying if you aren’t at the table, then you’re on the menu. I think that’s a fi tting explanation of where cattlemen and women fi nd themselves with the En- vironmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers’ proposed waters of the U.S. rule. We know agriculture was not consulted when the
EPA was writing this rule, but we weren’t alone in the dark. Nearly every small business group that relies on land and water resources was there with us. In fact, it seems only the environmental groups, a
few misguided farmers groups and sportsmen organi- zations had a seat at that table. This proposed rule by the EPA amounts to the larg-
est land grab by a federal agency anyone has ever seen — a land grab that Congress didn’t authorize and that goes far beyond the scope of any ruling by the Supreme Court on the EPA’s authority under the Clean Water Act. This proposal turns dry stream beds, ponds and
ditches into federal waters, regardless of the presence of actual water. It regulates fl oodplains, wetlands, puddles, streams
and creeks. And regulation results in permits, costs, delays and restrictions. If this proposal is allowed to go into effect, you could
be completely prohibited from grazing cattle near a mud hole or pond, or be required to obtain a permit for everyday activities like pasture management or constructing a fence. Conservation activities not complying with one of the 56 selected USDA Natural Resource Conservation
tscra.org
Service (NRCS) practice standards will also require a 404 dredge-and-fi ll permit. This not only hinders your ability to graze cattle, construct or maintain a fence and apply chemicals, but in effect makes NRCS a regulatory agency. Worse yet, the determination of whether a permit is required is based on terms that are poorly defi ned, if defi ned at all, and the fi nal de- termination is left to the “best professional judgment” of the regulator. Look at the proposed rule, the defi nitions, and see
how certain you are you’re operation won’t be affected. Even though EPA didn’t extend us a seat at the table,
there is something we can do to let them know what effect these rules would have. The EPA has opened comments in the Federal Register and I urge you, your friends and neighbors to comment. The easiest way to comment is to go online to
BeefUSA.org and comment on the “Issues” page. There you will fi nd draft comments that you can add to or modify to fi t your situation and those comments will go directly to the Federal Register and the EPA. We need to get 10,000 comments by Oct. 20, so
regardless of whether you or your friends are NCBA members, TSCRA members, or just own property, en- courage them to comment. As Texas agriculture pro- ducers, we have a history of rallying to the cause when the government invades our businesses. If we don’t beat back the scare tactics of this administration and radical environmental groups, we will lose this battle. Landowners need to send a strong and deliberate
message to EPA and the Administration to #Ditch- TheRule.
July 2014 The Cattleman 79
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