Senators introduce bipartisan WOTUS bill

A bipartisan group of United States senators held a news conference April 30 to introduce S. 1140, the Federal Water Quality Protection Act. The bill is sponsored by Sens. Jim Ihhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma; John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming; Joe Donnelly, a Democrat from Indiana; Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat from North Dakota; Pat Roberts, a Republican from Kansas; and Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia. The bill is similar to House Bill R. 1732, which would direct the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw the existing Waters of the U.S. proposal and issue a revised WOTUS rule that protects traditional navigable waters from water pollution, while also protecting farmers, ranchers and private landowners. “The issue is this: We have always had the states have jurisdiction over the waters of the United States except for those that are navigable,” Inhofe said. “We all agree that those that are navigable are justification for the federal government to be involved. However, there are a lot of people that have wanted to concentrate these efforts into Washington and in order to do this they wanted through legislation to do away with the word ‘navigable.’”...more