Six Nebraska agricultural groups including the State Cattlemen’s Association is asking EPA to withdraw its Waters of the U.S. rule which is intended to clarify the Clean Water Act. Cattlemen’s Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs Kristen Hassebrook says the proposal is actually made up of two rules, the interpretive and the jurisdictional rules. She says EPA is violating the law by trying to expand their jurisdiction.
Hassebrook says earlier EPA and USDA agreed to exempt 56 conservation practices from Clean Water Act permits and put that into the interpretive rule. She says however most of those are common farming practices which are already exempt.
Hassebrook says public comments on the jurisdictional rule are due July 21 and the interpretive comments were due June 5 but that’s now been extended to July 7. Nebraska groups joining Cattlemen in asking for the rule withdrawal are the Farm Bureau, Pork Producers, Dairy, Soybean and Corn Associations.