Glenn Thompson: “Last week, I had the pleasure of joining the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers in…”

“Last week, I had the pleasure of joining the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for an event announcing NWPA, or the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, a rule that will replace the flawed 2015 WOTUS, Waters of the United States rule. For decades, there has been confusion and never-ending litigation over WOTUS. During my time as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee's Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee, which included watersheds and oversees environmental policy regarding agriculture, I heard from many farmers and ranchers, landowners, and environmental advocates about just how harmful WOTUS was to their businesses and to their way of life. WOTUS was a gross overreach and particularly dangerous for the agriculture industry, as vast new areas of farmlands would be subject to the Clean Water Act and costly new permitting mandates for the very first time, even beyond our farms and ranches. Anyone who owned any property, private property rights would be regulated. Ninety-nine percent of Pennsylvania was swept under these overreaching WOTUS regulations. In addition to taking away States' authority to manage water resources, the 2015 WOTUS rule expanded the Clean Water Act far beyond the law's historical limits of navigable waters and the long-held intent of Congress. Instead of providing much-needed clarity to the Clean Water Act, WOTUS created even more confusion.…”