EPA -- Wish Actions Matched Words

Last week when my fellow farm broadcasters were in Washington D.C., Gina McCarthy, the Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, spoke to the group.
McCarthy: “Agriculture and ranchers were really our first original conservationists. That they care as deeply about water quality and clean land and the air we breath as I do. I always begin to acknowledge because I think one of the most important things EPA can do is to establish a much better relationship with the agriculture community so that we can work in partnership to protect the things that are important to both of us.”
Sounds promising and even encouraging doesn’t it? However, sadly what the EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released in late March as the proposed rule redefining what qualifies as a “water of the U.S.” was of no help in better defining what constitutes waters of the U.S. but rather has vague and ambiguous terms that do not give ranchers any comfort in the possibility of a “partnership” that Director McCarthy so describes.
On Friday the House Ag Committee Chair Congressman Frank Lucas wrote an editorial in the Tulsa World Newspaper. He wrote — QUOTE: “Even with an open mind, giving the EPA the benefit of the doubt, it is difficult to read the proposed rules and not feel concerned - maybe even outraged.”UNQUOTE
So Director McCarthy do you really want a partnership with agriculture? A very good step would be to actively listen to what the original conservationists are telling you concerns them about your proposal and make the needed changes.