Fellow Conservative,
There is something going on behind the scenes that is truly hard to believe. It is a level of lawlessness that I didn’t even think possible in Obama’s Presidency.
The Environmental Protection Agency has spent the past few years rewriting the decades-old Clean Water Act to give it the power to regulate every single body of water in the United States. Now, we all love clean water. But just because a law has a nice sounding name doesn’t mean it’s worth the paper it’s written on.
When the law was written, the Clean Water Act gave the EPA regulatory control over “navigable waters;” basically any body of water deep enough for a boat to travel on it. This was an important distinction. While the EPA would have the authority to regulate the Mississippi River, for example, they would have no right to regulate the creek behind your house or the puddle in your driveway. The logic was that because multiple properties touched a navigable waterway, the actions of one polluter would hurt many other people.
The EPA’s own website explains that the law only allows them to regulate pollution into navigable waterways. But with a stroke of a pen, Obama’s EPA has changed the law to give them the power to regulate pretty much any body of water in the country. From retention ponds to puddles, the EPA wants to regulate it!
Most recently, the EPA went after a Wyoming rancher for building a stock pond to provide water to his livestock. Even though the Clean Water Act explicitly exempts stock ponds from regulations, rancher Andy Johnson is now facing $16 million in fines. All because he dug a hole and let the rain fill it with water.
Then there’s the case of Dexter Lutter, a farmer who upgraded his drainage ditches to increase water quality by replacing the tile drains. During the process, he ended up filling in manmade ditches that ran across his property. The EPA fined him $20,000 for violating the Clean Water Act.
There’s the case of Mike and Chantell Sackett who took their case all the way to the Supreme Court and stopped the EPA from fining them for building their home on “wetlands.” The violation? They filled in puddles on their property.
There’s the story of Gary Harrington, who was fined and jailed for 30 days for building three ponds on his property and stocking them with fish.
I could go on and on. There are more cases than I have time to list.
These aren’t just academic cases. These aren't hypotheticals. These are Americans who are having their lives upended and ruined because of the Obama administration’s lust for power.
The Clean Water Act explicitly prevents pollution of navigable waterways. These are bodies of water that boats and ships can travel across. The law was designed to stop companies from dumping pollutants into these waterways.
If Obama gets his way, the same would apply to the puddles in your front yard. Under this new regulation, you would be a criminal if you washed your car and the soap suds gathered in a puddle on your lawn. Think about that for a second…
The question we need to ask ourselves is simple: “Is this the kind of country we want to live in?”
Not only has the EPA claimed the power to regulate ANY land that touches water, but they also claim the authority to regulate dry creek beds, for example, where the water has stopped collecting.
Thirteen states are suing the EPA as we speak and a Federal Judge issued an injunction to stop this ridiculous new regulation. But the Judge just refused to extend his injunction nationwide. The EPA is still allowed to go after 37 states – roughly 75% of the country’s landmass.
The only way to stop the EPA from implementing these dictatorial regulations and rewriting the law is for Congress to intervene and the only way that will ever happen is for brave Patriots like YOU to demand it!
Sincerely,
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
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