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Indiana joins Clean Water Act lawsuit

Indiana is the latest state to join the multi-state lawsuit challenging the US EPA’s Clean Water Act.  Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller says the EPA’s rule that redefines small bodies of water would be costly to farmers and could harm the state’s agricultural economy.

And, he says, the rule also intrudes upon the state’s authority to regulate small waterways within its own borders.

Justin Schneider, senior policy and council for Indiana Farm Bureau says IFB and its members have publicly opposed the rule.  “We were pretty adamant to the rule proposal,” he says.  “We’re still adamantly opposed to this rule as it’s been made final.  We think its expanding the authority of the federal agencies beyond the authority of the Clean Water Act.”

He says Indiana Farm Bureau is “gratified that Attorney General Zoeller and the state of Indiana agree with our position and will take legal action against water regulations that will severely limit farmers’ ability to farm their land.”

He tells Brownfield there is still a lot of uncertainty in the final rule.  “I don’t think it’s a stretch for anybody to read ‘the exemption for ditches’ or for erosional features and say there is really no exemption at all,” he says.  “And if the agency wants to pull in an erosional feature in a field by saying ‘it has a bed and a bank and an ordinary high water mark’ that they could pull that in.”

In a release issued Monday, Governor Mike Pence said he is pleased Indiana is joining the more than two dozen other states challenging the final Waters of the US rule.  “Once again, the EPA has stretched beyond its authority under federal law and they must be held accountable,” he says.  “They cannot be allowed to continue to expand federal authority over more aspects of Hoosiers’ lives.”

Justin Schneider, Indiana Farm Bureau