John Scott Duarte: “I wish we were here talking about clean water. We can all agree, as we did back in 1974 when we passed the Clean Water…”

“I wish we were here talking about clean water. We can all agree, as we did back in 1974 when we passed the Clean Water Act and we gave the government all it needed to deliver clean water to America, the rivers no longer burn. Trains do fall in rivers, but that is a jurisdictional river. That is not what we are talking about today. What we are talking about today is how much dry land, how much farmland, and how much rolling hills and grassy fields with no frogs, no fish, and no water most of the year are going to be regulated by this administration. Back when we passed the Clean Water Act, it was bipartisan. Republicans and Democrats got together, and we gave the government jurisdiction to protect our clean drinking water. Our harbors, our rivers, and our streams are protected. Our lakes are protected. Our drinking water is protected. Nothing here today will have any impact on whether we have safe drinking water or not. As a farmer, I was prosecuted under the Clean Water Act for planting wheat in a wheat field that had been planted to wheat with the same practices many times before. What we are talking about here today is expanding the authorities of the Clean Water Act to regulate almost every activity--construction, farm production, energy exploration--that can happen on open fields that might from one time or another pocket a little bit of water.…”