Don Beyer: “This amendment seeks to preserve our current Clean Water Act protections over our rivers, streams, and wetlands. Our…”

“This amendment seeks to preserve our current Clean Water Act protections over our rivers, streams, and wetlands. Our Nation's river system and wetlands provide values that no other ecosystem can: natural water quality improvement; flood protection; shoreline erosion control; recreation; general aesthetic appreciation; and national products for our use at no cost. Yet section 107 of this bill seeks to undermine protection of streams and wetlands and the critical balance between protecting these waters and the day-to-day operations of our Nation's farmers, ranchers, and foresters. Under current law, farmers, ranchers, and foresters can carry out their normal operations in any water body without requiring a Clean Water Act permit. What this means is that farmers can continue to plow their fields--including potential wet areas that have been farmed for decades--plant their seeds, and harvest their crops without ever having to obtain approval under the Clean Water Act. Any normal farming, ranching, or forestry exemption is going to include minor limitations. For example, a farmer cannot use the current exemption to convert his farmland to a residential development without obtaining a permit; a rancher can't use this exemption to plow under a wetland to expand his grazing lands; and forestry operations can't use this exemption to change the course of a local stream to improve drainage on their growing lands.…”