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Farm Bureau concerned about prairie pothole regulation

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) says the proposed Waters of the U.S. rule could be a “regulatory nightmare” particularly for farmers and ranchers in prairie pothole states in the Northern Plains.  The AFBF points to comments from EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy delivered at the National Farmers Union convention.  In that speech last month, McCarthy said the agency is trying to be more specific about how the nation’s regional waters are protected.

“We teed up ideas in the rule itself for how we might do this better,” said McCarthy, during her speech to the National Farmers Union in Wichita, “and we’re going to use our best judgement on how we establish some bright lines that folks can count on.”

Based on those comments and on other materials from the EPA, the AFBF is concerned about the consequences of the EPA’s rulemaking regarding Waters of the U.S.  One of the EPA’s large land areas it refers to as an ecoregion includes much of the prairie potholes, according to Don Parrish, regulatory relations director for the AFBF.

“The way in which they played this issue is that they intend to authorize a proposal that basically would allow the agency categorically to regulate isolated intrastate waters,” Parrish told Brownfield Ag News Monday, “and prairie potholes meet that definition.”

Parrish says the agency has assured that some of the potholes that have been dry and farmed for decades will not be regulated.  But on the other hand he says the EPA maintains that if farmers pollute the areas, that is a problem.

“And unfortunately when you look at the issue of ‘pollute,’ they mean things like controlling weeds and controlling insects and controlling disease and fertilization,” said Parrish.  “Those types of practices are not covered under the 404 exemptions that EPA likes to point to.”

Prairie potholes are isolated intrastate wetlands found most often in the Dakotas, Wisconsin, Iowa, Montana and Minnesota.

AUDIO: Don Parrish (5 min. MP3)