Free Republic

Those bracing dips in the local lake or river may not be as healthy as they were cracked up to be judging by a new list of polluted waterways released last week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Recent tests have found more toxic material, bacteria and pollution in California rivers, streams, bays and lakes than has ever been documented before, according to the federal agency. The study shows a 170 percent increase in the number of waterways showing toxicity in 2010 compared with 2006, the last time the study was done. Less than half of the state's lakes, bays...

President Obama wants to control all the land and all the water in the United States. Legislation that would have deleted the word "navigable" from the federal Clean Water Act and given the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction over every drop of moisture in the country crashed and burned last Congress, ending the 36-year congressional career of its lead sponsor, Jim Oberstar, in the process. But Obama's EPA, as usual, won't take no for an answer, and is now attempting to ignore two Supreme Court decisions, commonsense, and the American people and vastly expand federal Clean Water Act...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Fueled by coal industry complaints about the Obama administration's crackdown on mountaintop removal, legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday that would strip federal regulators of their authority to make state agencies properly police water pollution. House members approved the legislation by a vote of 239 to 184. The legislation faces an uncertain future in the Senate, and a veto threat from the White House, but its approval by the House provides a symbolic victory for critics of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "The reality is that the agency is strong-arming the states," said Rep....

Strip-mine rubble dumped into creeks, mercury that builds up in lake fish, and sewage washing up on beaches. What's the best way to control such pollution? For nearly 40 years, the job has gone to Washington, not a crazy-quilt of state jurisdictions. If the country is serious about curbing such threats, it needs steady enforcement by watchful Washington, versed on new scientific findings and mindful that dirty water can drift across state lines. But this stature could be undercut today if the Republican-dominated House approves a bill that would gut the Environmental Protection Agency of its power over states. At...

(New York, N.Y.) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Administrator Judith Enck today traveled to New York’s Great Swamp in Brewster, N.Y. to discuss the importance of clean water and a draft guidance developed by EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to clarify which waters are subject to protection under the Clean Water Act. The future status and condition of the Great Swamp is dependent not only on what happens directly within the swamp, but also on activities within its nearly 100-square-mile watershed, which includes the headwaters of the Housatonic River, the Croton River, Long Island Sound and...

Washington, D.C. -- The Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to exempt dairy farmers from provisions of the Clean Water Act, U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday. The Clean Water Act since 1970 required dairy farmers to develop and implement plans on how to handle a milk spill -- the same sort of plan as oil companies had to develop for handling oil spills. Schumer said the EPA claimed that since milk contained animal fat -- which is an oil -- the milk spills had to be treated the same way. Schumer said he has fought this regulation because...

This week marks the beginning of the end of the long national nightmare known as the 111th Congress.  Republicans were given a second chance—by default—through a national effort to stop the destructive Obama/Pelosi/Reid agenda. House Republicans are poised to begin making the same kind of business-as-usual mistakes that relegated the party to minority status in 2006.  The most glaring example is the looming threat of having Rep. Fred Upton (RINO-Mich.) become chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, despite his liberal voting record, simply because he’s next in line.  If there is one thing voters made absolutely clear...

What is the one natural resource we cannot live without? The answer is water. How do you feel about the government owning and/or controlling ALL of the water in the U.S.? The government wants your pond. And they will get it through numerous manipulative ways. Several times I have reported on the Obama land grabs. Today we learn of one more, and friends, we need to know the difference between "navigable waters" and the "waters of the United States." The culprits are the Great Outdoor Initiative, The Clean Water Act and the Land and Water conservation Fund. Congress has set...

Film buffs might recognize the Los Angeles River as the gigantic concrete gutter used for car chases in "Grease," "Terminator 2" and other movies. But the river is something else for U.S. EPA: "a traditional navigable water." EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson's declaration of the cement-lined channel today as "navigable" is aimed at allowing her agency to enforce Clean Water Act protections throughout the river's 834-square-mile watershed.

Following the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Congress enacted the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. The OPA amended the Clean Water Act (CWA) §311, including changes to spill response authorities. The language is clear and unambiguous: the President is mandated to take action to clean up the spill and mitigate or prevent damage to the environment. Prior to the amendment, the President had “significant latitude” in outsourcing the clean up. Per the OPA, the President’s removal authority should be carried out through the “creation and implementation of facility and response plans.” §311 further requires that the President issue regulations “establishing procedures,...

Keeping America’s waterways and water supply clean is a crucial goal. So is guarding against federal micromanagement of our lives and property. Unfortunately, a push is on to use the cause of clean water as an excuse to unbalance our federal system and undermine our liberties by concentrating regulation of land use in Washington, D.C. The proposed Clean Water Restoration Act was the first legislative salvo in this campaign. Unveiled in 2007, the CWRA was reintroduced in the Senate last year by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis. With a simple semantic change, it would usher in unprecedented centralization by giving federal...

House Democrats pushed forward Wednesday with an effort to delete the word "navigable" from the Clean Water Act - a change that would give the government greater ability to enforce clean-water rules but that opponents said amounts to a federal power grab. "If this bill were to become law, there'd be no body of water in America that wouldn't be at risk of job-killing federal regulation - from farmers' irrigation canals to backyard ponds and streams to mud puddles left by rainstorms," said Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington, the ranking Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee. The Waters Advocacy...

Regulations: The Clean Water Act is being rewritten to give a government bureaucracy the power to regulate every body of water from the Mississippi River to a rain-flooded field. The first casualty may be American coal. With all the concern for the harm that cap-and-trade and regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant might do to the American economy and free markets, the Environmental Protection Agency is doing quite enough damage with an existing law on the books — the Clean Water Act. Congress plans to revise it to make it an even more powerful bludgeon against industry, energy producers and...

From Bathtubs To Baptismal Fonts, Congress Moves To Give the Corps of Engineers and EPA Control Of All U.S. Waters Issue: Having been slapped down by the U. S. Supreme Court's two recent decisions that the words "navigable waters" in the Clean Water Act limited federal agencies to regulation of navigable waters only. Democrats and liberal Republicans in Congress are striking back. They are attempting to pass the Clean Water Restoration Act of 2009 (No House Number - S 787 In Senate) that would amend the 1972 Clean Water Act and replace the words "navigable waters" with "waters of the...

CLEVELAND — Investigators said this afternoon that several hundred gallons of what appears to be a type of cooking oil pouring out of a sewer pipe has killed or disabled hundreds of gulls on the Cuyahoga River. The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District had called the Ohio EPA on Wednesday to report that the substance was pouring into the river out of a storm sewer near the Kingsbury Run tributary, EPA officials said. Sewer workers were using an oil/trash containment boom to contain and collect the oil, but at some point the oil got out from under the boom and...

Despite strong opposition from agricultural groups and private property rights advocates, a bill that would expand the federal reach of the Clean Water Act, and that could have sweeping effects on everyday farming activities, passed out of a key U.S. Senate committee last week. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted 12-7 to advance S. 787, also known as the Clean Water Restoration Act, which now faces consideration by the full Senate. If adopted, the legislation would give the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers authority over nearly every wet area in the nation, including farm...

Sen. Feingold seeks to restore with unlimited powers the Clean Water Act(CWA). The new CWRA (s.787) will extend the federal government power to regulate all interstate waters, including non-navigable waters leaving property owners vulnerable to federal land grabs.

EPA agrees to study acidic seas; move adds to regulation momentum The Obama administration took another step toward regulating carbon dioxide, issuing a notice Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency will review whether those emissions should fall under the Clean Water Act. The EPA earlier this year determined that C02 should be regulated under the Clean Air Act due to its impact on temperatures. But Tuesday's notice — soliciting scientific data as to what extent seas are made more acidic by C02 — could extend regulation out to U.S. waters. The notice was in response to a petition filed by...

Under the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers are granted jurisdiction over the “navigable waters” of the United States. If a boat can float on it, it’s theirs to regulate. Over the years, the definition of “navigable waters” overflowed its banks, expanding to include virtually anywhere with detectable levels of H2O. “What began as a reasonable attempt to control water pollution in our nation’s interstate rivers, lakes, and streams,” says Peyton Knight at the National Center for Public Policy Research, “spiraled into unreasonable federal regulation of isolated wetlands, ponds, dry lakebeds,...

By Bryan Fischer Lynn Moses will be locked up in federal prison next Wednesday. His crime? Protecting the city of Driggs, Idaho from flooding. When Mr. Moses began to develop a subdivision along Teton Creek in 1980, Teton County required him to implement an engineer’s plan to modify the Teton Creek stream bed to prevent the flooding of subdivision property, caused by the buildup of gravel bars and downed trees, during high water flows in the spring. In fact, the county would not allow him even to record the plat for the subdivision until the modification work had been done,...

Henry Kissinger was reported to have said, “Control the food and you control the people.” Controlling people is as simple as controlling food, water and energy through a variety of controls. “No Farmers No Food,” the bumper sticker distributed by The Adopt a Farm Family ministry, is a message of warning. The Adopt ministry was started by Mary Myers, wife of Peter Myers, former Deputy Secretary of Agriculture who served in the Reagan Administration. She confided to me that God had instructed her to “watch over the food.” At that time there appeared to be no reason for concern. Now...

My newest column from the Greater Niagara Newspapers addresses Congress's newest land grab... CONGRESS WANTS YOUR WATER By Bob Confer The United States of America was founded on the premise of natural rights with this underlying emphasis succinctly dictated as the unalienable rights of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” During the era in which the Declaration of Independence was framed the Pursuit of Happiness applied to property rights. Our founding fathers knew that Man has the right to attain property, keep property, and engage in the use of property to make his life better, all in manners that...

Federal Clean Water Act Wrong for Arizona: New report recommends Arizona opt-out of Clean Water Act, manage its own water January 29, 2008 Phoenix--Congress is considering whether to expand the reach of the federal Clean Water Act. But is expanding a law designed for water-rich environments like Florida good for the drought-stricken deserts of Arizona? A new report from the Goldwater Institute says no. Muddy Waters: Deconstructing the Clean Water Act in Arizona finds that the Clean Water Act doesn't take Arizona's unique desert environment into account. As a result, Arizona homeowners and businesses pay the price with unnecessary property...

MARTINSVILLE, Ind. - In a town that is one of the key battlegrounds in the Interstate 69 fight, environmental groups Monday announced a federal lawsuit to block design and planning of the Evansville-to-Indianapolis leg of the highway. The plaintiffs, including the Hoosier Environmental Council and several business owners, allege that the Indiana Department of Transportation ignored harmful environmental impacts of building a direct route between Evansville and Indianapolis. It also claims INDOT was biased against a route that would have upgraded the existing U.S. 41-Interstate 70 corridor into a new highway. It accuses 11 defendants - state and federal agencies...

Today the Supreme Court hears two challenges to federal wetlands regulations. In each case, landowners are challenging the federal government’s authority to prevent them from developing wetlands under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Federal regulators claim such regulation is clearly authorized by the CWA and is necessary to safeguard the nation’s waters. The landowners, for their part, assert that the federal government lacks the legal authority to regulate private land that lacks a substantial connection to navigable waters. Depending on how the Court resolves these disputes, control over millions of acres of private land may hang in the balance. Depends...

Future of nation's rivers, wetlands hinges on 2 key cases. Samuel Alito will make his Supreme Court debut with a splash this week when the justices hear two cases that could determine the future of the Clean Water Act. The cases, both from Michigan and scheduled for hearing on Tuesday, could have an enormous impact. For property-rights advocates, an unfavorable ruling could spread the shadow of federal regulation over every tiny stream and rivulet in America, stifling development. Federal authority would extend to "virtually every body of water in the nation -- every brook and pond, every dry wash --...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON - Half the 435-member House, including 26 Republicans, wrote President Bush on Tuesday urging him to scrap his administration's efforts to change Clean Water Act regulations that could reduce the scope of waterways protected nationwide. Bush's environmental adviser, Jim Connaughton, told The Associated Press no decision has been made yet about whether to go ahead with new rules that are just "a very small part" of the president's strategy for protecting wetlands in 30 federal programs. In the letter, 218 House members, including all but 14 of 205 Democrats, said...

Suddenly and without warning, 21 heavily armed federal U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agents stormed a small Massachusetts manufacturing company that produced plastic-coated steel wire mesh used for lobster traps and erosion control for 20 years. During the November 7, 1997, EPA raid, frightened employees were harassed, photographed and videotaped. Later that night, some were interrogated in their homes. James M. Knott, Sr., the company's owner, was indicted on felony charges and threatened with six years in prison and $1.5 million in fines. Knott's crime? A harmless violation of an obscure technical provision in an EPA Clean Water Act regulation....

Bush Administration Weakens Wetlands Protections WASHINGTON, DC, January 10, 2003 (ENS) - The Bush administration issued new, and immediately controversial, guidance today regarding federal authority over the nation's wetlands. While the administration claims the guidance reaffirms federal authority "over the vast majority of America's wetlands," conservation groups charge that the administration's action will repeal Clean Water Act protections for a large percentage of the nation's waterways. The new guidance attempts to clarify the authority of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over isolated, non-navigable wetlands. Federal authority to protect such wetlands from...

Potomac Sludge We often write about Washington dirt, but it turns out we had no idea. Listen to this tale about the water pollution our nation's capital suffers, and all because its residents won't follow the laws they wrote. We're talking about the Washington Aqueduct, a treatment facility that provides drinking water to about a million residents. In purifying that water, the Aqueduct creates thousands of tons of chemically treated sludge a year. What happens to that goo? Well, the Army Corps of Engineers dumps it into the storied Potomac River, in the dead of night, including via the C&O...

Intended Consequences: Natural Process v. Environmental Arrogance By Sean FinneganPublished 08. 19. 02 at 18:58 Sierra Time Sean Finnegan, who reported regularly from Klamath Falls for The Sierra Times, will be providing exclusive coverage of the Sawgrass Rebellion - the convoy headed toward Florida. As expected, The Sierra Times will provide regular coverage of this event. Finnegan begins his series on the battles in the Western States.DISPATCHES:· In the early morning of October 18, 1998, fire destroyed five buildings and four ski lifts in Vail, Colorado. Two days later an underground terrorist group known as the Earth Liberation Front...

Chances are, at this very moment, a family is arriving at some U.S. shoreline ready to spend a week relaxing at the beach. But before mom, dad and the kids can get their feet warm in the sand, a sign confronts them: "Beach closed. No swimming allowed." As the children slouch back to the car, a parent tries to console them. "At least the hotel has a swimming pool, and there's always next year." And so it goes. Similar routines are played out for real thousands of times each year in this country. And the culprits — those who...