By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves praises the United States Supreme Court decision on the Biden Administration’s Waters of the United States’ (WOTUS) rule, calling the ruling a huge win for agriculture as well as all property owners.
Graves, a Republican, succeeded in getting a bill through Congress that would restrict the reach of the EPA under the Clean Water Act only to see the president veto it. Graves doesn’t expect the Biden Administration to accept this defeat in the courts, either.
“I’m sure that the president and some of the extremists are going to come back with something else now, because this thing just seems to get batted around all the time,” Graves tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “The Supreme Court did us a huge favor by at least taking us back to reasonable restrictions.”
The ruling, though, might not be clearcut.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously against the EPA that had told an Idaho couple they couldn’t build a home near Priest Lake, claiming the property as a protected wetland. The justices, though, split on what test the EPA should use in administering the Clean Water Act.
Graves argues WOTUS went well beyond the authority Congress granted in the Clean Water Act and could have been applied to streams, even ditches, that Congress never intended to subject to regulation. Graves complains WOTUS gave the EPA too much power.
“So, whoever the individual was who was coming out if they had a bone to pick with you, they could shut you down on being able to use your property the way you want and we have to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Graves says. “The Clean Water Act is pretty specific when it comes to navigable waterways and we just need to keep it that way.”
Graves says if the EPA needs guidance, it should consider the actual wording of the Clean Water Act approved by Congress in 1972.
“The original bill, obviously done in the 1970s, I think it spells it out quite clearly and we need to follow that,” according to Graves.
The Supreme Court ruling came in the Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency.
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