THE WASHINGTON TIMES: Opinion: American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall: Reforming the Environmental Protection Agency

Another example: During a 2015 House Committee hearing on the EPA’s regulatory overreach, Rep. Frank Lucas, Oklahoma Republican, grilled EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy concerning the agency’s failure to provide scientific and legal justification for the Waters of the U.S. rule. The 2015 Waters of the U.S. rule redefined “navigable waters” and expanded federal jurisdiction as far as to include low-lying areas of farmers’ and ranchers’ fields.

Based on a memo from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which shares Clean Water Act authority with the EPA, Mr. Lucas said, it was “apparent that the alleged facts and figures outlined in EPA’s final Waters of the U.S. rule were completely arbitrary and not based on any science.” Peer review, it seems, was dysfunctional even between government agencies.

Under the 2015 Waters of the U.S. mandate, private property owners faced a real challenge just in being able to manage their own agricultural lands. Fortunately, EPA is now in the process of working to withdraw and replace the disastrous rule. Mr. Pruitt’s reform of the rule-making process in April is a natural follow- up. It will ensure that, in the future, only science that is honestly peer-reviewed, reproducible and open to the light of public examination may form the basis for the EPA regulations by which we live and work.

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Photo credit: Linas Garsys – The Washington Times