By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — A dispute over whether an Idaho couple can build a new home near a lake close to the U.S. border with Canada could have a huge impact on agriculture throughout the country.
The dispute has reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments this week.
Northern Missouri Congress Sam Graves is watching closely, because the Supreme Court could strike down or uphold the Environmental Protection Agency interpretation of the Clean Water Act, which it calls Waters of the United States.
“It continues to be batted back and forth and it’s going to hurt farmers,” Graves tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “It’s literally going to allow the EPA to come onto your property. It’s going to include almost all property out there, allow the EPA to come onto your property and regulate you.”
During oral arguments, government lawyers sought to assure the Supreme Court that WOTUS will not affect farmers.
Graves, a Republican, doesn’t buy it.
“Some of the folks that support this will tell you that farmers are exempt and that is absolutely not the case,” Graves claims. “There is not any provision within this proposal that the Biden administration is putting up that exempts farmers out of this. That is flat out false.”
WOTUS seeks to expand what waters can be regulated under the Clean Water Act to include swamps, bogs, and marshes. Opponents contend the EPA is exceeding the authority it has been granted by Congress which limits the Clean Water Act to navigable waters. The EPA contends it is operating under the authority of the act and that WOTUS is vital to the environmental health of the nation’s waterways.
Graves is hopeful the Supreme Court strikes down WOTUS.
“We are hoping for a favorable decision on that,” Graves says. “I’m glad that finally we’re going to put this to rest once and for all.”
Graves says it appeared the issue was resolved with a compromise reached during the last administration.
“This started with the Obama administration and the EPA’s overreach,” according to Graves. “Then, the Trump administration rolled it back and we came up with a compromise and now the Biden administration is putting all these, and even further, restrictions back into it. So, it continues to go back and forth.”
It will be some time before the Supreme Court issues its opinion.