by
Tom DeWeese
U.S.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has just introduced legislation designed to
reign in out-of- control federal agencies such as the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers. The bill, if
enacted, will be a vital blow to the enforcement of radical environmental/Agenda
21- inspired regulations. The bill is called the Defense of Environment
and Property Act of 2012 (S.2122).
A
little history: in 1972, as the environmental movement was getting its
start through popular efforts to stop pollution in our rivers and air,
Congress passed the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (later called
the Clean Water Act). The law prohibited the discharge of pollutants
into “navigable waters” without a federal permit. The problems
began when the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers made a power grab
by enforcing the act over ponds, occasional mud puddles, and even dry
lands by labeling them as wet lands.
The
result has been disastrous to property owners and businesses, sometimes
even leading to jail sentences to “violators.”
The
result of such outrageous interpretations of the Clean Water Act has
led Senator Paul to introduce his bill to do the following:
Redefine
“navigable waters” to explicitly clarify that waters must
actually be navigable in fact, or “permanent, standing, or continuously
flowing bodies of water that form geographical features commonly known
as streams, oceans, rivers and lakes that are connected to waters that
are navigable-in- fact.”
•
Excludes ephemeral or intermittent streams – the streams that
sometimes form when rain falls – from federal jurisdiction.
•
Restrains the EPA and Army Corps from regulating or “interpreting”
the definition of a navigable water without Congressional authorization.
•
Protects the rights of states to have primary authority over the land
and water within their borders.
•
Prohibits federal agents from entering private property without the
express consent of the landowner
•
Requires the government to pay double the value of the land to any landowner
whose property value is diminished by a wetlands designation.
1 comment:
'Redefine “navigable waters” to explicitly clarify that waters must actually be navigable in fact'
This bill stops too soon on navigable waters. That term puts many flowing streams out of the reach of fish management structures or erosion control methods or other means of improvement. The blubber butt bureaucrats just wait to deny or require permits for these "navigable streams".
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