Boozman Calls For Withdrawal Of ‘Harmful’ Water Regulations

Sen. John Boozman, R-Arkansas, on Monday, joined with several of his Senate colleagues to document abuses in the Environmental Protection Agency’s rulemaking process and called on the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to immediately withdraw the proposal to claim federal control over almost all state and local waters.

Boozman also joined with fellow members of the Senate Agriculture Committee, to urge the withdrawal of an “Interpretive Rule,” which is causing significant confusion about which farm and ranch activities will be affected by the new EPA and Corps mandates.

The EPA and Corps proposal would give the administration much greater power to oversee the land use decisions of homeowners, small businesses and family farms throughout the country. Surface water throughout the country is already protected, either by the federal government under the Clean Water Act, or by a patchwork of state and local measures that take into consideration local conditions, priorities, needs, and circumstances.

The Obama administration is trying to overrule state and local conservation efforts, with a one-size-fits-all approach from Washington, D.C., Boozman said.

“EPA’s latest attempted power grab will make life harder for Arkansas families, especially farm families. This proposed rule will give Washington virtually unlimited authority over all state and local waters. It’s an unprecedented takeover perpetrated by abuse of the rule making process,” Boozman said.

“The administration has purposefully misrepresented the impact of this proposed rule and given stakeholders little opportunity to engage in the process in a meaningful way. That is why we are calling on the administration to immediately withdraw this proposed rule. I am committed to stopping to this administration’s attacks on our way of life, especially in rural areas, and the ‘Waters of the U.S.’ rule certainly falls into that category,” he said.

In a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Secretary of the Army John McHugh and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Boozman and his Republican colleagues on the Senate Agriculture Committee called for an immediate withdrawal of the proposed “interpretative rule.”

In a separate letter to Secretary McHugh and Administrator McCarthy, Boozman and twenty-three of his Senate colleagues also called for withdrawal of the proposed jurisdictional rule, while documenting the ways in which the administration has manipulated the rulemaking process in an attempt to prejudge the outcome.