Still fighting Water rule

[Lee Borgersen]

Still fighting; Water rule veto does not end opposition

Today at 6:57 a.m.

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Opponents of the Obama administration’s efforts to regulate small bodies of water and streams pledge to continue fighting .

  Barack Obama vetoed a congressional resolution that would have prevented enforcement of the Waters of the U.S. provision.

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“We must protect the waters that are vital for the health of our communities and the success of our businesses, agriculture and energy development,” Obama said in his Tuesday veto message. “As I have noted before, too many of our waters have been left vulnerable.”

He wrote that pollution affects some previously unregulated “rivers, lakes, reservoirs and coastal waters near which most Americans live and on which they depend for their drinking water, recreation and economic development.”

Even with Obama’s veto, his rule cannot be enforced because of a court order last fall.

Opponents promise to keep up their fight, both in Congress and in the courts.

“I will continue to work with my colleagues to kill this rule once and for all while supporting the states’ efforts to litigate this matter,” U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said.

The Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers finalized the rule in May but a lawsuit filed by 13 states, led by North Dakota, was successful in obtaining a preliminary injunction to block the rule’s implementation in those states. In October, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order blocking the rule nationwide.

Cramer said the rule would give federal authorities jurisdiction “over virtually all waters and wet areas in the country, and undermines the role of the states as partners and co-regulators of the nation’s waters.

A prime mover behind the congressional resolution against Obama’s water rule, Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst from Iowa, said after the veto that everyone wants clean water, but the Obama effort is “about how much authority the federal government and unelected bureaucrats should have to regulate what is done on private land.”

The resolution to dump the rule did not pass with enough votes to override Obama’s veto.

Cramer said there are several examples of the Obama administration violating federal rules in writing the law, including lobbying for it via social media.

The American Farm Bureau’s report on the rule says that the new rule grants “regulatory control over virtually all waters, assuming a breadth of authority Congress has not authorized.”

Minnesota’s congressional delegation mostly broke along party lines on the issue, with Rep. Collin Peterson the only Democrat joining Republicans to vote against the rule.

U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan, D-Minn., said the GOP-led resolution against the Obama rule jeopardized public safety and the environment.

“The clean water rule is carefully designed to protect our lakes, rivers and drinking water and ensure that EPA requirements are applied fairly and consistently across the nation,” Nolan said. “Moreover, the rule includes and clarifies important exemptions for agriculture and timber. And it would allow businesses and communities the regulatory certainty they need to invest in projects that require clean water.”

Two U.S. Supreme Court rulings did not clarify how far federal water authority extends, so the administration issued the rule.