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Missouri farm leaders disagree on WOTUS

Not all farmers believe the EPA should be sued for its Clean Water Rule.  More than two-dozen states, including Missouri, are suing to stop the rule saying it is an overreach on private lands and will harm farmers and ranchers. Farmer Richard Oswald, president of the Missouri Farmers Union, prefers to work WITH the EPA, “My thought is that we need these rules and if they prove to be difficult for farms to work with, then organizations like mine and others in the state need to go back to EPA and point out the errors of their ways.”

Oswald tells Brownfield he wants assurances that his kids and grandkids have drinking water as good – or better than what he’s had, “I’ve grown up and lived most of my life drinking just plain ole Missouri water out of a well that wasn’t even treated and I think everybody ought to have that right.”

But, Mike Deering, executive vice president of Missouri Cattlemen’s, tells Brownfield Missouri’s Attorney General is right for going after the EPA, “In Missouri, right now, all we’ve had is rain, rain, rain. And, whether you’re in agriculture or in the city, we’ve had a lot of rain and flood plains are now included under EPA’s jurisdiction and right now the entire state of Missouri is a flood plain.”

The agriculture exemptions in the rule, Deering says, will not help, “If you look at those exemptions it says farm ponds are exempt IF it’s used exclusively for livestock. So, if you irrigate from it, if you swim in it, if you fish in it, it’s no longer exclusive.”

Deering says the water rule is not just an agriculture problem but extends to all property owners and many other industries.