WOTUS Uncertainty

As a farmer, Rep. Dan Newhouse is keenly aware of the affects of any kind of water issues and that includes the Waters of the U.S. rule which has been tied up in the courts. He recently was part of a House Natural Resources Hearing on Empowering States and Western Water Users where Larry Martin from Sunnyside Valley Irrigation District responded to questions.

NEWHOUSE: He was talking about the questions, the uncertainty that result from these new requirements, the difficulty of the irrigation district had in maintaining their own ditches because of the new rules and caused a lot of inability to perform work

Martin says the irrigation districts are afraid of the rule.

MARTIN: Frankly Congressman, they're very scared of the rule. They have to do work on their canals and ditches on a daily basis to keep the waters flowing to their farmers

Newhouse reiterates that the WOTUS rule creates a great deal of uncertainty.

NEWHOUSE: To get permits to do work in their own canals and ditches is a very lengthy process, really imposes many burdensome regulations and just like I said, a lot of uncertainty as to what they can and can't do.

Again, Congress has asked EPA to go back and look at the rule and he says he's not certain if the issue will be resolved before the Presidential election.

NEWHOUSE: You know I don't have a good guess as to how long this will be in the courts. It's been several months already and I don't know if anybody has a clear date of when to expect a decision.

And that's Washington Ag Today. I'm Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.