A new version of the Clean Water Act introduced

Farm and Ranch May 5, 2010 House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar has introduced a new version of the Clean Water Restoration Act that, among other things, removes the word "navigable" from the definition of covered waters. The Minnesota Democrat said his new proposal addresses concerns raised by opponents of the Clean Water Act.

Oberstar: “Among the significant changes the bill uses the current regulatory definition of “Waters of the United States“ to establish the scope of the act. That will avoid the need for new regulation. The bill codifies an exemption for prior converted farmland. The bill explicitly states that groundwater is considered separately from waters of the United States.”

But agricultural interests aren’t happy with Oberstar’s latest draft. Don Parrish is Director of Regulatory Relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Parrish: “The first thing out of Mr. Oberstar‘s mouth at his news conference was that anybody who opposes this is always opposed to the Clean Water Act and they are not for clean water. I take exception to that. Farmers and ranchers appreciate clean water. The depend on it. It is important to them, but they also know that the agencies have a history of reaching up on dry land and trying to regulate land use through the Clean Water Act and they are very sensitive to that.”

I’m Bob Hoff on Northwest Aginfo Net.
 

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