{"id":9217,"date":"2015-05-28T10:33:48","date_gmt":"2015-05-28T14:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=9217"},"modified":"2015-05-28T10:33:48","modified_gmt":"2015-05-28T14:33:48","slug":"obama-admin-asserts-dominion-over-creeks-streams-wetlands-ditches-even-big-puddles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2015\/05\/28\/obama-admin-asserts-dominion-over-creeks-streams-wetlands-ditches-even-big-puddles\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama admin asserts dominion over creeks, streams, wetlands, ditches — even big puddles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

President Obama\u2019s administration on Wednesday claimed dominion over all of America\u2019s streams, creeks, rills, ditches, brooks, rivulets, burns, tributaries, criks, wetlands \u2014 perhaps even puddles \u2014 in a sweeping move to assert unilateral federal authority.<\/p>\n

The Environmental Protection Agency, along with the Army Corps of Engineers, says it has the authority to control all waterways within the United States \u2014 and will exercise that authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re finalizing a clean water rule to protect the streams and the wetlands that one in three Americans rely on\u00a0<\/span><\/span>for drinking water. And we\u2019re doing that without creating any new permitting requirements and maintaining all previous exemptions and exclusions,\u201d EPA head Gina McCarthy told reporters Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The moves comes as part of the Clean Water Act and federal officials say they are simply\u00a0<\/span><\/span>trying to help businesses comply with regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis rule is about clarification, and in fact, we\u2019re adding exclusions for features like artificial lakes and ponds, water-filled depressions from constructions and grass swales,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cThis rule will make it easier to identify protected waters and will make those protections consistent with the law as well as the latest peer-reviewed science. This rule is based on science.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court has twice questioned the breadth of powers decreed under the Clean<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Water Act, prompting Wednesday\u2019s actions.
\nMcCarthy claimed the new powers would \u201cnot interfere with private property rights or address land use.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does not regulate any ditches unless they function as tributaries. It does not apply to groundwater or shallow subsurface water, copper tile drains or change policy on irrigation or water transfer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, THE top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, loves the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Obama administration listened to all perspectives and developed a final rule that will help guarantee safe drinking water supplies for American families\u00a0<\/span><\/span>and businesses and restore much-needed certainty, consistency, and effectiveness to the Clean Water Act,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n

House\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Majority Whip Steve Scalise said:<\/p>\n

\u201cEPA\u2019s attempt to redefine \u2018navigable waterways\u2019 to include every drainage ditch, backyard pond, and puddle is a radical regulatory overreach that threatens to take away the rights of property owners and will lead to costly litigation and lost jobs…”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: Obama admin asserts dominion over creeks, streams, wetlands, ditches — even big puddles – Washington Times<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Obama\u2019s administration on Wednesday claimed dominion over all of America\u2019s streams, creeks, rills, ditches, brooks, rivulets, burns, tributaries, criks, wetlands \u2014 perhaps even puddles \u2014 in a sweeping move to assert unilateral federal authority. The Environmental Protection Agency, along with the Army Corps of Engineers, says it has the authority to control all waterways within the United States \u2014 and will exercise that authority. \u201cWe\u2019re finalizing a clean water rule to protect the streams and the wetlands that one in three Americans rely on\u00a0for drinking water. And we\u2019re doing that without creating any new permitting requirements and maintaining all previous exemptions and exclusions,\u201d EPA head Gina McCarthy told reporters Wednesday. The moves comes as part of the Clean Water Act and federal officials say they are simply\u00a0trying to help businesses comply with regulations. \u201cThis rule is about clarification, and in fact, we\u2019re adding exclusions for features like artificial lakes and ponds, water-filled depressions from constructions and grass swales,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cThis rule will make it easier to identify protected waters and will make those protections consistent with the law as well as the latest peer-reviewed science. This rule is based on science.\u201d The Supreme Court has twice questioned the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[445,653,1251],"class_list":["post-9217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-politics","tag-clean-water-act","tag-epa","tag-obama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}