The Reporter newspaper, Camdenton Missouri

The Reporter covers Miller, Morgan and Camden County in Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and is published once per week on Wednesdays.

Published October 8, 2014

EPA, Army Corp ‘power grab’ has city upset

By Jeff Thompson
OSAGE BEACH - A proposed expansion of the federal definition of the “Waterways of the United States” has city officials crying foul.

The Board of Aldermen approved a resolution condemning the proposed definition at its regular meeting last Thursday night.

According to City Attorney Edward Rucker, the new definition is so broadly written that it may include privately or city maintained roadside ditches and storm drains.

“This would directly impact the Public Works Department to move storm water, to maintain ditches and culverts,” Rucker said.

The proposed broadening of what constitutes the “Waterways of the United States” comes from both the Army Corp of Engineers (ACE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the city attorney stated.

“The rule should be redrafted to specifically exclude the roadside ditches and storm water channels that the city maintains today,” Rucker stated in a report to the board.

The city attorney added that the new definition could be taken to ridiculous extremes.

“We don’t want to go to the Army Corp of Engineers every time we want to clean a ditch,” Rucker said.

Alderman Steve Kahrs agreed.

“This is unbelievable,” Kahrs said. “This is a power grab by the EPA and Army Corp of Engineers; it affects private ownership as well.”

State Rep. Rocky Miller - who was at the board meeting to address the same issue - also noted that the EPA could achieve the same extremes dealing with carbon dioxide emissions through the EPA’s Clean Water Act.

“There’s a lot of people who are unhappy about this change,” Miller said.

Kahrs said he had read the proposed definition and have a rather obvious opinion on it.

“It’s legalese for ‘this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in my life’,” Kahrs said.

The U.S. House of Representatives apparently agrees with Kahrs’ assessment.

The House passed House Resolution 5078 - the Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act of 2014 - on Sept. 9 by a vote of 262 to 152.

The resolution “(p)rohibits the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from: developing, finalizing, adopting, implementing, applying, administering, or enforcing the proposed rule entitled, ‘Definition of 'Waters of the United States' Under the Clean Water Act,’ issued on April 21, 2014, or the proposed guidance entitled, "Guidance on Identifying Waters Protected By the Clean Water Act," dated February 17, 2012 ...”

The Missouri Farm Bureau (MFB) also agrees with the alderman.

“We appreciate the bipartisan vote by the U.S. House of Representatives (Sept. 9) to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ‘Waters of the U.S.’ rulemaking,” MFB stated. “The majority of House members see what we see — this proposal has serious flaws and simply cannot be tweaked to resolve the concerns of farmers, landowners and many other Americans. If EPA won’t ditch the rule, Congress should and our own Reps. Cleaver, Graves, Luetkemeyer, Hartzler, Long, Smith and Wagner agree.”

MFB added that the U.S. Senate needs to follow the House’s lead in condemning what Kahrs defined as a “power grab”

In addition, Bob Stallman - American Farm Bureau Federation President - said in April a review of the proposed definition was disappointing.

“The EPA proposal poses a serious threat to farmers, ranchers and other landowners.
Under EPA’s proposed new rule, waters – even ditches – are regulated even if they are miles from the nearest ‘navigable’ waters,” Stallman said on April 1. “Indeed, so-called ‘waters’ are regulated even if they aren’t wet most of the time.”

The board unanimously approved the resolution which needs to be submitted to the EPA by Oct. 20, according to Rucker.

For more information on the proposed changes, go online to www2.epa.gov/uswaters.