The Agricultural Retailers Association and fellow members of the Waters Advocacy Coalition (WAC) submitted a 10-page letter last week describing and documenting the coalition's serious concerns with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed rule defining Waters of the United States (WOTUS).
The key legal / procedural issues highlighted in the letter include the following:
* The agencies continue to issue new materials explaining the proposed rule throughout the comment period, creating a moving target for public comment.
* Without public notice or opportunity for comment, the agencies are developing policies on key components of the proposed rule, such as ordinary high water mark.
* The science advisory board has raised concerns with significant components of the proposed rule, and EPA has not released a final connectivity report.
* The USGS maps recently released by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) depict only a portion of the land and waters subject to federal CWA jurisdiction.
* The agencies have failed to conduct meaningful outreach with states and small businesses under the proposed rule.
"EPA hasn't finalized the Connectivity Report, its scientific basis for the regulation, or made it available for public scrutiny," said ARA President & CEO Daren Coppock. "Their Science Advisory Board hasn't completed its review of that report. The agency can't give a consistent answer from one day to the next about how much jurisdiction will expand under the rule; one day it's a 2.7 percent expansion, and the next the Administrator is saying that 60 percent of America's waters will be unprotected without it. And now we're seeing a regulatory agency resort to tweeting, posting, blogging and videos to advocate its proposal: those are the actions of an advocacy organization, not a science-based regulatory agency."
EPA's controversial proposed rule has drawn criticism from state water and agriculture departments, business groups, governmental organizations, as well as trade and professional including the National Governors' Association, Western Governors' Association, and National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA). From the agricultural sector, the American Farm Bureau has led a spirited campaign to "Ditch the Rule."
ARA has joined 62 other organizations in the WAC requesting the agencies withdraw the rule and engage the states and industry on a more consensus regulatory proposal. Most recently, the House of Representatives overwhelming passed legislation (H.R. 5078) by a vote of 262 to 152 that would prevent implementation of the rule and require the agencies to work with state and local governments in the development of any future rulemaking. H.R. 5078 has not been considered in the Senate.
Source: www.agprofessional.com