WOTUS Solution

One of the most contentious issues in agriculture since I have been reporting for over 10 years has been Waters of the United States also known as WOTUS. State offices of the American Farm Bureau Federation have done all kinds of awareness campaigns including one that I know that use little rubber ducky. But think about it. When some guys irrigation ditch which might be 2 feet across is considered navigable or a water of the United States, clearly, this is government overreach and needs to be seriously addressed. That appears to be what Congress has recently done with legislation that has repealed some of the WOTUS overreach. Mercifully, now, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler says his agency is working to redefine what is considered a "waters of the US.” “We worked on trying to define what is the US through multiple Congresses. The original Clean Water Act definition in 1970 said navigable waters, and it has been expanded a lot over the years by Supreme Court decisions. We've not finalized our new definition. We hope to finalize it this winter. But what our proposal does is follow the Clean Water Act, as well as the Supreme Court cases to provide what I hope will be a working definition so that any property owner can stand on his or her property and be able to tell for themselves whether or not they need a federal permit without having to hire an outside lawyer to tell them whether or not they have a water.