Posted on 12/04/2019 2:12:03 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
No one told Jack LaPant that he could be in violation of the Clean Water Act for farming his own land.
That’s mostly because the federal law includes a clear exemption for “normal” farming activities. But it’s also because the government officials LaPant consulted didn’t view overturned dirt that has been tilled and plowed as pollution.
In 2016, the Army Corps of Engineers, which administers the Clean Water Act with the Environmental Protection Agency, began legal action against LaPant for plowing he did in 2011 to plant wheat on a ranch property he owned in Northern California.
But in March 2012, LaPant had sold the property, located in Tehama County about 4 miles south of the city of Red Bluff.
Before plowing his field to plant wheat, LaPant conferred in person with the Farm Service Agency in California, which is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“All of these government officials I spoke with, and they have all been deposed, they never once suggested that I should go meet with the Army Corps of Engineers,” LaPant said in a phone interview with The Daily Signal.
“I asked them if it was OK to take this piece of land and grow wheat and they all said it was OK,” he recalled. “Even today, you can go into these offices and they will not tell a farmer that he needs to go and see the Army Corps to farm on his own land. It makes no sense and the Department of Agriculture doesn’t understand any of it, and we are talking about the same federal government.”
LaPant recalls visiting “four different government folks” with expertise in soil conservation when he was researching the history of the farm.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...
PING!
For situations like this ask ‘Who profits?’ Certainly not the farmer. Look for big donor to local politicians who wanted his land.
‘Cui bono’
If the IRS ‘Help Line’ gives you bad advice, they are not responsible for your taxes, you are.........................
California was built up on agriculture, and the DEMs are hell-bent on destroying that industry.
Yet bums have Carte Brown to sh!t in the streets.
What’s next....oxygen classified as a poisonous gas?
I had a farmer uncle who would taste the soil to see if it needed any amendments before he planted the seeds.
In that same area, look what the Feds did to Duarte Nursery.
It is a crying shame that the EPA, Corps, and black robes run roughshod over the farmers and ranchers in the area.
These are "essential" employees and MUST be saved.
” located in Tehama County about 4 miles south of the city of Red Bluff”
Heaven on earth.
But there’s not enough info here to know whether this guy did anything wrong, much less illegal.
Because it’s generally considered “wrong” in the Big Valley to plow dust and hardpan, it’s a common practice in the winter and spring when the fertile soil is wet.
And if he plowed/tilled in the summer/fall it’s likely one of his neighbors would have kicked his ass, and the rest run him out of town.
If the soil was wet I doubt anyone would have noticed. Government or not.
For situations like this ask ‘Who profits?’ Certainly not the farmer. Look for big donor to local politicians who wanted his land.
They already own his land, the farmer is farming because they allow him to. With a stroke of a pen some bureaucrat can easily rezone his farm to something else forcing the farmer to get relief or stop farming.
Some on here think zoning is a great wonderful idea given to us by the nice guy Karl Marx and it benefits everyone because a strip club won’t open next door to your house. But in reality, none of that matters since the “zoning authority” can be easily bought, bribed, traded political favors, etc for the people who have the money to do so.
Private property and our property rights are the most important rights in a free society, even more important then the 2nd amendment. I am saying the 2nd isn’t important, but it is useless if the government took everything you have with a stroke of a pen.
Soil (sediment, dirt) is indeed a pollutant when it gets into water.
That basic fact doesn’t really have anything to do with this story, which is about one government agency’s making its own rules and not even telling other government agencies.
There are very few “Army Engineers” in the Corps of Engineers ... most are civilian deep state political hacks.
Yeah, oxygen is highly corrosive.
A chemist friend said once "water is one of the most corrosive fluids there is; we don't notice because we're made out of it."
This would be more like the IRS not telling you that the Army Corps of Engineers had an add on to your taxes for clean water.
I know a farmer that spent years (+$)going to different state agencies just to put a well on his property, and that was all with a state water master on his side.
His very first problem was living in California.
His very first problem was living in California.
I wonder if this is about run-off from the plowing going into waters the ACE does have jurisdiction over? Still at some point the farmer should have been informed if any approvals and permits regarding run-off would be needed by various agencies including ACE.
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