Re:  "Clean Water Restoration Act"   

Bob St. Louis

Spring Creek , Nevada

May 12, 2008  

Whether it is keeping our bodies hydrated, irrigating crops, brewing beer, used for recreation, or providing for industrial processes, water is vital to everything we do.  That is why all of us should take notice of HR 2421, a bill that is working through the House right now, along with its companion bill, S 1870, in the Senate.

These bills are titled, “Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007.”  Underlying this warm and fuzzy title is a monster of unbelievable proportions, because these bills would give the federal government authority over all water in the United States .

Heretofore the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers had authority over so-called navigable waters of the United States, defined at 33 CFR 329.4 as “…those waters that are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide and/or are presently used, or have been used in the past, or may be susceptible for use to transport interstate or foreign commerce.”  The new Act would redefine waters of the United States to include “…all interstate and intrastate waters and their tributaries, including lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, natural ponds, and all impoundments of the foregoing” [emphasis added].

Compare the proposed federal definition with the current definition of waters of Nevada (NRS 445A.415(1)) which include, “All streams, lakes, ponds, impounding reservoirs, marshes, water courses, waterways, wells, springs, irrigation systems and drainage systems.”  In short, the feds intend to usurp Nevada ’s authority over its water, just as the Endangered Species Act usurps states’ authority over their wildlife.

This will affect every producer, whether the product is beef or bullion.  It will impact landowners in ways never before imagined.  Uncle Sam and his bureaucratic minions would have control over all surface water, including places surface water might be, throughout this nation.

Once again, our Congress is contemplating an act that is clearly outside the limits imposed by the Constitution.  This Act expands well beyond the federal role of regulating interstate commerce, which was the pretext for most of the laws that give authority to the EPA, USFWS, and a host of other alphabet agencies.  States’ rights would get abridged in a whole new dimension, and give marvelous opportunities for “well-intentioned” third parties/NGOs to interfere with our businesses and activities.

If you like the Endangered Species Act, with all the bizarre twists it has taken since its 1973 enactment, you are going to love what the feds do to “protect” our water.

The federal government has repeatedly demonstrated its ineptness at managing national parks and lands administered by the BLM and Forest Service.  Imagine what it could do with our water!  An added benefit is that water could be redistributed, like money, to benefit political favorites while leaving others high and dry.

Water is life, and is of utmost importance in the arid West.  Write Senators Reid and Ensign, and Representative Heller, urging them to stop this travesty.  If we don't stop this now, we will find our lives changed in ways we cannot imagine.  And those changes will not be good.