Farms Raise Concerns Over Proposed Changes To Clean Water Act Enforcement

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy visited on Thursday to promote a proposed rule for the nation’s streams and wetlands that has left some farmers concerned.

“Waters of the U.S.” is a federal plan to define which waters are protected under the Clean Water Act. Some big farm organizations are raising concerns about the plan, contending farmers would lose control over things like ditches on their property.

McCarthy, when asked about the plan following a tour of a freshwater research center in Milwaukee, said that it is not an attack on agriculture.

“Agriculture is an important community for us to make sure that we have absolutely protected their exemption under the Clean Water Act,” said McCarthy. “We have not extended further into their business and we don’t want to.”

The Wisconsin Farm Bureau’s Karen Gefvert said she worries some exemptions for farms could eventually go away.

“There could possibly be a permit requirement,” she said. “We see this as regulatory creep … We would rather see this as something that we handle locally within the Wisconsin (Department of Natural Resources) under state waters.”

Conservation groups like the Wisconsin Wetlands Association say that if science is adequately applied in the federal rule, as many as 1 million acres of wetlands in the state could be better protected.

Public comments on the plan are being accepted for about two more weeks.