Miner County South Dakota farmer Arlen Foster and his wife Cindy have filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in Sioux Falls against the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Tony Francois of the Pacific Legal Foundation is representing the Foster’s in the case. Francois says they’re asking the NRCS to reconsider a wetlands determination that basically made a mud puddle a federal wetland and is preventing the Foster’s from farming that area.
He says the original designation was made under Swamp buster regulations which keeps producers from farming areas deemed wetlands and keeps them from getting federal farm payments or even crop insurance.
Francois says what their asking in their court challenge is for a review of the wetland determination.
Foster has been battling the USDA’s wetland determination since 2008 over an 0.8 acre tract of land.
