Montana farmer: Congress must take further action to stop EPA’s new water rule

By Cyndi Johnson, Montana Farm Bureau President
Published by the Billings Gazette

For Montana farmers and ranchers, spring typically brings warmer temperatures, thawing soil, the planting of new crops, and the inevitable rise of water levels as snow melts.

But this year, as the snowmelt begins to send water across the pastures and fields of our farms and ranches, Montana agriculturalists are grappling with tremendous uncertainty in the face of a new EPA rule that grants the federal government sweeping authority over land that precipitation has touched.

The rule, called waters of the United States (WOTUS), defines which waters are regulated by the federal government under the Clean Water Act. We are ardent supporters of the Clean Water Act’s protections for our nation’s precious water resources, because our crops, our livestock and our families depend on clean water to live healthy and productive lives. Yet this rule goes far beyond Congress’ original intentions when it first created these safeguards in the 1970s.

One of the most troubling parts of the WOTUS rule for my family is its expansion of EPA jurisdiction over ephemeral or intermittent streams.
My family farms on a coulee east of Conrad, located miles from any waterway. It remains bone-dry for years on end, except for the extremely rare occasions when it becomes wet from snowmelt. Yet under this new WOTUS rule, our dry coulee now could be regulated by the EPA and require a Clean Water Act permit just to carry out everyday tasks such as building a fence or plowing a field.

As president of the Montana Farm Bureau, I have received several phone calls from my members who are troubled by the implications of this rule on properties. The regulation’s language is so ambiguous and convoluted, most ag producers will be forced to pay exorbitant fees for attorneys and consultants just to determine if any of their land falls under EPA’s authority.

If private farmlands become regulated under WOTUS, the price tag will undoubtedly lead to less farming and less domestic food production.

One estimate asserts that an individual Clean Water Act permit on average takes 788 days and costs more than $200,000. Growing crops and raising livestock requires extensive planning for months, even years, in advance. We cannot wait years to know if we can even start planning. Montana’s beloved family farms stand to lose the most.

Two District Courts and a bipartisan majority of Congress, to include our U.S. Senators John Tester and Steve Daines and Representatives Ryan Zinke and Matt Rosendale, have now recognized the EPA’s egregious overreach with WOTUS, even granting a temporary reprieve in our state. Yet President Biden’s recent veto of this bipartisan resolution proves this administration has no intention of backing away from its repeated attempts to broaden the power of the federal government. Montana farmers and ranchers now turn to Sen. Tester and his colleagues to take bold action again against the executive branch’s incessant efforts to hamstring the ability of agriculture producers to grow and raise American food and fiber.

Cyndi Johnson is president of the Montana Farm Bureau.