President Obama’s administration on Wednesday claimed dominion over all of America’s streams, creeks, rills, ditches, brooks,
rivulets, burns, tributaries, criks, wetlands — perhaps even puddles —
in a sweeping move to assert unilateral federal authority.
The
Environmental Protection Agency,
along with the Army Corps of Engineers, says it has the authority to
control all waterways within the United States — and will exercise that
authority.
“We’re finalizing a clean water rule to protect the streams and the wetlands that one in three Americans
rely on
for drinking water. And we’re doing that without creating any new
permitting requirements and maintaining all previous exemptions and
exclusions,”
EPA head
Gina McCarthy told reporters Wednesday.
The moves comes as part of the Clean Water Act and federal officials say they are
simply trying to help businesses comply with regulations.
“This
rule is about clarification, and in fact, we’re adding exclusions for
features like artificial lakes and ponds, water-filled depressions from
constructions and grass swales,”
McCarthy
said. “This rule will make it easier to identify protected waters and
will make those protections consistent with the law as well as the
latest peer-reviewed science. This rule is based on science.”
The Supreme Court has twice questioned the breadth of powers decreed under the Clean Water Act, prompting Wednesday’s actions.
McCarthy claimed the new powers would “not interfere with private property rights or address land use.”
“It
does not regulate any ditches unless they function as tributaries. It
does not apply to groundwater or shallow subsurface water, copper tile
drains or change policy on irrigation or water transfer.”
Not
surprisingly, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, THE top Democrat on the
Environment and Public Works Committee, loves the plan.
“The Obama
administration listened to all perspectives and developed a final rule
that will help guarantee safe drinking water supplies for American
families and
businesses and restore much-needed certainty, consistency, and effectiveness to the Clean Water Act,” she said in a statement.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise said:
“
EPA’s
attempt to redefine ‘navigable waterways’ to include every drainage
ditch, backyard pond, and puddle is a radical regulatory overreach that
threatens to take away the rights of property owners and will lead to
costly litigation and lost jobs. The House is committed to fighting back
against this radical policy, which is why we passed bipartisan
legislation earlier this month to stop the
EPA in their tracks from moving forward with this misguided proposal. It’s time for President Obama’s
EPA
to abandon these radical proposals, all in the name of protecting
wetlands and waterways, that instead will only lead to more American
jobs being shipped overseas at the expense of the American economy.”
Source
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/27/obama-admin-asserts-dominion-over-creeks-streams-w/
“Indian Chief “Two Eagles was asked by a white U.S. government official, “You have observed the white mand for 90 years. You’ve seen his wars and his technological advances. You’ve seen his progess, and the damage he’s done.”
The Chief nodded in agreement.
The official continued, “Considering all these events, in your opinion, where did the white man go wrong?”
The Chief stared at the government official then replied,
“When white man find land, Indians running it, not taxes, no debt, plenty buffalo, plenty beaver, clean water. Women do all the work, medicine man free, Indian man spend all day hunting and fishing all night having sex.”
Then the Chief leaned back and smiled, “Only white man dumb enough to think he could improve system like that.”
