Bad News for WOTUS Could be Good News for Agriculture

August 17, 2015
Posted in: News

Bad News for WOTUS Could be Good News for Agriculture

In early August, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released documents, some labeled “litigation sensitive,” in which the Army Corps of Engineers sometimes strongly disagreed with the U.S. EPA on the process of drafting the final Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule.

The documents suggest that there are numerous disagreements between the two agencies who co authored the rule, over various aspects of the proposed language including the scientific and legal basis for how EPA crafted the document. Some of the documents suggest that EPA’s language in the final rule is inconsistent with prior Supreme Court decisions.

The overregulation proposed in WOTUS is not something remotely palatable for U.S. farmers, including US dry bean growers and producers. USDBC along with other agricultural commodity groups supports delaying any implementation of WOTUS until less burdensome, science and precedent based language can be agreed upon.