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Final Clean Water Act could harm Hoosier agriculture

Stream in a Ditch

Monday Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller announced Indiana would be joining the multi-state lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s final Clean Water Act ruling.

Zoeller says the practical impact to farmers in the state of Indiana would be huge. “The delay that it would cause for farmers to try and go to Washington to get a permit for something that may be a very local issue – in a farm field, in our rural countryside,” he says.  “It was really a bad idea and I’m hoping EPA will change their minds.  If not we’ll have to ask the courts to change it for them.”

He tells Brownfield EPA’s final ruling infringes on state and local governments.  “It’s not that we can’t handle our own environmental questions, regulations, and the permits that we grant,” he says.  “Nobody wants pollution.  I think that the states and local governments are much more capable and we have the manpower.  We are currently doing it.”

Zoeller says agriculture is vital to the state’s economy and the EPA rule would add additional red tape and could potentially add excessive financial burdens to Hoosier farmers.

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