A Clean Water Act extension could more than double the red tape.
A new Environmental Protection Agency rule working through the courts called the Waters of the United States would expand the agency’s current jurisdiction of 3.5 million miles of rivers and streams to 8.1 million miles nationally, according to The Oklahoman.
Under the new version of the Clean Water Act, bodies of water, seasonal streams and even normally dry land is subject to federal oversight. The Clean Water Act has previously been given government oversight to protect public health and drinking water for navigable bodies of water in the U.S.
NFIB has filed a lawsuit to fight the new rule and the impact it will have on small biz with the State Chamber of Oklahoma, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Portland Cement Association and the Tulsa Regional Chamber.
“The EPA and the Army Corps have rewritten the Clean Water Act in an effort to expand their power and—in the process—have completely ignored their obligation to seriously consider small business impacts,” said Karen Harned, executive director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center. “These are runaway bureaucracies that have the power to destroy family businesses and local economies with shock-and-awe penalties of $37,500 per day. And we’re here today to stop them.”
The basis for WOTUS’ claim on much of the land it now seeks to protect comes from “physical indicators” of water flow and other hydrologic estimates determined by computer programs. The ruling would mean that lands can be deemed tributaries even without previous field evidence of water accumulation.
NFIB expects the case to make it to the Supreme Court.
For more information about the Clean Water Act and how it affects small business, visit NFIB.com/Waters.
