Special Report

NPPC officials discuss WOTUS concerns

After reviewing the final version of the EPA’s Waters of the U.S. rule, officials of the National Pork Producers Council say they have just as many concerns now as they did before the rule was released.

“I think we’re going to be subject to jurisdiction in a lot of places that we were not under jurisdiction of EPA before,” says John Weber of Dysart, Iowa, president-elect of NPPC.

Weber said he’s also apprehensive that many everyday farming practices could be subject to Clean Water Act regulations that would require a permit.

“If I want to do a conservation project on my farm and it involves a wetland or tiling or whatever it may be, it’s another level of bureaucracy that I’m very concerned about, having to get permits to accomplish that,” Weber says. “None of those details were really clarified in the rule.”

Weber and NPPC chief environmental counsel Michael Formica discussed the WOTUS rule last week during a World Pork Expo news conference.

AUDIO: John Weber and Michael Formica at World Pork Expo