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" It has long been the opinion here at the shebeen that we are dooming ourselves to nearly endless political, cultural, and perhaps literal fistfights over water over the next several decades. We&amp;#039;re seeing a particularly grotesque example of this underway in Flint, Michigan, at the moment. (Most recently, Governor Rick &amp;quot;Accessory Before The Fact&amp;quot; Snyder has called out the National Guard to help hand out bottled water and other supplies. I&amp;#039;m sure it has nothing to do with the need for possible &amp;quot;pacification&amp;quot; duties if the residents of Flint finally get completely fed up with being poisoned.)\u00A0But there are things happening in the Congress as well. On Wednesday, the House voted to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Waters of the United States&amp;quot; rule that asserted federal environmental protections over the country&amp;#039;s smaller waterways. This action came on a Senate bill that was passed in November, the chief sponsor of which is my new friend, Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa. The usual rhetoric about over-reaching and jackboots has attended the passage of the bill, which undoubtedly will be vetoed if it ever gets to the White House. The GOP says the administration is seeking to assert federal control over puddles, ditches, areas that are occasionally wet and other large sections of private or state land in violation of the intent of the Clean Water Act. They say the rule would be disastrous to farmers, developers, landowners and other businesses that would need a federal permit for routine tasks such as digging ditches.\u00A0&amp;quot;The federal government shouldn&amp;#039;t be regulating every drop of water,&amp;quot; said House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), whose panel has authority over water policy. Just about every wet area in the country is open to federal regulation under this rule. The rights of landowners and local governments will be trampled.&amp;quot; Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)\u00A0called\u00A0the rule a &amp;quot;power grab&amp;quot; in a Wednesday op-ed. &amp;quot;The EPA claims it is only clarifying the law, but Congress never intended the federal government to oversee tiny streams and ponds on private property,&amp;quot; he wrote in the Omaha World-Herald in agriculture-heavy Nebraska. (Having the leader of a congressional caucus that made a fetish object out of the Keystone XL pipeline warning Nebraska farmers about the threats to their private property\u00A0is pretty damn rich.) The Clean Water Rule is not currently being enforced because of a federal court ruling that blocked its implementation while it is being litigated. The EPA says the regulation is entirely consistent with the Clean Water Act. It was necessary, the agency says, because a pair of Supreme Court rulings left significant waterways with unclear protections, including ones that sometimes lead to sources of drinking water. But the agency&amp;#039;s opponents, such as farmers and homebuilders, say it&amp;#039;s a broad overreach by the EPA into vast areas that were not covered before. They say that the rule&amp;#039;s wording is so broad that it would add new bureaucracy to, or even prevent, basic tasks such as draining small ponds and constructing basic buildings. You probably won&amp;#039;t be surprised, given the involvement of my friend Senator Joni, that the agitation over the rule began out in the hinterlands as part of the paranoia regarding our old friend, Agenda 21, the secret UN plan to steal all our golfs.\u00A0And let&amp;#039;s not pretend that this is all about plucky farmers and faceless bureaucrats. Big agriculture is pushing this campaign hard,\u00A0as are the construction and the extraction industries. The Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have joined the American Farm Bureau Federation, Dairy Farmers of America, pesticide manufacturers, mining companies, home builders, state and local governments, water utilities, flood control districts, the timber industry, railroads, real estate developers and even golf course operators among the more than 230 organizations and companies that have listed &amp;quot;Waters of the United States&amp;quot; on federal lobbying disclosures since the administration proposed the rule in March 2014. Many food and beverage giants have pitched their thoughts to lawmakers on the measure, too, including Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms, Land O&amp;#039;Lakes, the potato giant J.R. Simplot and Ocean Spray Cranberries. Also weighing in are about 40 energy companies, including Halliburton, BP, Shell, Chevron, Rio Tinto and the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, in addition to two dozen power companies such as Duke Energy and Pepco. The commodification of something as fundamental to human survival as water already has begun. It&amp;#039;s tied into climate change. It is the battle of the next 100 years and, unlike the oil wars, you can always decide not to drive a car or use gasoline. You can&amp;#039;t decide not to drink any water. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a41199/epa-water-regulation-battle/>