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Federal agencies stomp on private property rights with EPA WOTUS ruling, says cattlemen.

Mindy Ward, Editor, Missouri Ruralist

May 27, 2015

2 Min Read

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers today finalized the Waters of the United States Rule, also known as WOTUS. The move is causing outrage from some leaders in Missouri's cattle industry.

"This administration and this out-of-control agency have absolutely no regard for private property rights," Missouri Cattlemen's Association President Janet Akers said in a news release.

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She went on to say that, "This agency acts more like an activist organization determined to convert all private land into a vast national park. It is clear that bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., see the need to declare themselves ruler of every drop of water and piece of private property in this country. This rule is a pervasive invasion of private property rights."

Leaders of the cattle industry expressed concern over the fact that the EPA took just six months to review more than one million public comments on the rule.

MCA Executive Vice President Mike Deering said the rule unilaterally strips private property rights and adds hundreds of thousands of stream miles and acres of land to federal jurisdiction. Despite the EPA administrator calling the concerns of cattlemen "ludicrous," Deering stressed in a statement that the impact in Missouri would be "devastating." He said the rule would throw nearly 80,000 additional Missouri stream miles under the regulatory authority of EPA and the Corps.

"The agencies' rule throws private property rights to the curb and clearly violates Supreme Court precedent by subjecting nearly all water to scientifically unfounded regulation," Deering said. "The intentional use of very broad and vague language in this rule makes clear that the government's intent is to subject landowners to limitless regulation. This nonsense cannot possibly be supported by the Clean Water Act or the U.S. Constitution."

While the MCA and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association are reviewing the details of tthe final WOTUS rule, Akers stated the only fix to this rule is to start over with all stakeholders' input and direction from Congress.

Related: EPA releases final Waters of the U.S. rule

About the Author(s)

Mindy Ward

Editor, Missouri Ruralist

Mindy resides on a small farm just outside of Holstein, Mo, about 80 miles southwest of St. Louis.

After graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural journalism, she worked briefly at a public relations firm in Kansas City. Her husband’s career led the couple north to Minnesota.

There, she reported on large-scale production of corn, soybeans, sugar beets, and dairy, as well as, biofuels for The Land. After 10 years, the couple returned to Missouri and she began covering agriculture in the Show-Me State.

“In all my 15 years of writing about agriculture, I have found some of the most progressive thinkers are farmers,” she says. “They are constantly searching for ways to do more with less, improve their land and leave their legacy to the next generation.”

Mindy and her husband, Stacy, together with their daughters, Elisa and Cassidy, operate Showtime Farms in southern Warren County. The family spends a great deal of time caring for and showing Dorset, Oxford and crossbred sheep.

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