Kansas Ag Connection - Roberts, Brownback, KDA Support WOTUS Repeal

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Roberts, Brownback, KDA Support WOTUS Repeal
Kansas Ag Connection - 06/28/2017

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback Tuesday issued the following statement following the repeal of the 2015 Clean Water Rule developed as part of the Waters of the United States:

"The Clean Water Rule was another example of bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. trying to run Kansas farms and ranches. Our state is a leader in water innovation, and Kansans have come together through community-led water preservation efforts spurred by our 50-year Water Vision. Our farmers and ranchers know best how to steward their water. We appreciate that President Trump and the EPA will now let our farmers farm and ranchers ranch."

The Kansas Department of Agriculture applauded the presidential administration's decision to repeal the 2015 Clean Water Rule and released the following statement.

"We are pleased that this rule has been repealed, and anticipate it will make way for a more favorable approach for Kansas agriculture," said Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Jackie McClaskey. "Kansas has been highly successful in managing our water resources, and through the Governor's Water Vision we continue to identify more ways to improve the future of water in the state."

U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, and an outspoken opponent of Obama-era burdensome regulations harming and farmers and ranchers, announced the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (Corps) have begun the process to withdraw the highly controversial Waters of the United States (WOTUS) final rule. The EPA and the Corps now begin a replacement rulemaking process to gather input and re-evaluate the definition of WOTUS.

"I'm pleased Administrator Pruitt and the EPA has listened to our concerns and has taken an important first step to rescind the infamous WOTUS rule. For too long, this rule has burdened not only farmers and ranchers, but landowners of all sizes, across the country."

"With a rewrite of the WOTUS rule, I look forward to seeing a rule that recognizes and respects the environmental strides taken by the American farmer and rancher. I'm grateful to have an EPA that listens to and addresses the concerns of rural America, a vital segment of our economy and true stewards of our natural resources."

The WOTUS rule was developed by the Obama Administration's EPA and the Corps. It greatly expanded the EPA's federal jurisdiction and scope of waterbodies subject to Clean Water Act requirements.

In February, President Trump signed an executive order providing relief from the WOTUS rule.

Roberts held a hearing on the WOTUS rule in the Senate Agriculture Committee and cosponsored legislation to repeal the rule in the 114th Congress.

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