Oct 29

Written by:
10/29/2011 5:06 PM 

Call Congress to cut funds for EPA Corps wetlands regulations

You must take immediate action! Deadline Friday, November 11. If you miss the deadline, continue to make the calls until Congress acts.

By acting quickly, you can cut off the EPA money supply. You can stop them from going forward with their new Clean Water Act Wetlands regulations.

You did it with Salazar’s “Wild Lands” Wilderness land grab. You took away their money. Now it is time to do it to EPA and the Corps of Engineers.

Don’t wait. Call now!

Senate working on money bill right now. Call your Congressman and both Senators.

• Call any Congressman at (202) 225-3121.
• Call any Senator at (202) 224-3121

It’s critical to get provision in the funding bills cutting off EPA Corps Reg. Funds.
 
You will win if you keep the pressure on Congress. But you must act now. Don’t sit back and assume someone else will do it.

Please send the new EPA Corps Testimony Questionnaire plus your personalized statement to Congress now. You must help stop the jurisdiction land and water grab by EPA and the Corps of Engineers.

The first phase of the effort to stop the EPA Corps Wetlands Regulations is over. The EPA has closed its comment period.

Now you must get Congress to put a stop to this EPA Corps of Engineers Wetlands jurisdiction and control land and water grab.

You are actually winning. The pressure from Congress is beginning to make the EPA wilt under the pressure. You must make more calls, faxes and e-mails to your Congressman and both Senators.

Don’t let EPA and the Corps remove the word “Navigable” from the Clean Water Act using slight of hand regulations. Don’t allow EPA and the Corps to gain new Jurisdiction over all waters of the United States.

You must go after your Congressman and both Senators to get them to put a stop to this giant land and water grab (Wetlands) by EPA and the Corps of Engineers.

Action Items:

1. Please paste a copy of this e-mail on your refrigerator door with a magnet or tape. Remember to call at least three times over the week.

2. Vital: Please forward this message to your entire e-mail list. Let networking work. This document is so important is must go viral. It must be spread by you widely if you are to compete successfully with the green groups that want to control your land and water using the EPA and Corps.

Use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking services to spread the word.

3. Call your Congressman at (202) 225-3121. That is the Capitol Switchboard. Ask for your Congressman by name. When that office answers, ask for the person who handles EPA, Corps and Wetlands issues. Tell them they must stop the new EPA Corps Wetlands regulations. Make sure you ask for the e-mail address of the staff person. Be sure to ask that they hold Congressional hearings.

Call both your Senators at (202) 224-3121. Follow the same instructions as with your Congressman.

5. Please visit our American Land Rights membership page at http://www.landrights.org/members.htm to join or donate. Please help support American Land Rights in this important issue. At least join as a member at $35 a year.

Most members send extra contributions to help win in Congress and with the Federal agencies. Your extra $1,000, $500, $200, $100, $50 or whatever you can afford will really help in this important battle. ALRA must send out tens of thousands of letters, faxes and e-mails to help you win.

You can simply copy and paste text into your browser if the hyperlink doesn’t translate in your email.

You can donate on line or send a check to American Land Rights, PO Box 400, Battle Ground, WA 98604. Thank you for your support.

ALRA has posted new formatted Testimony Questionnaires at www.landrights.org . They are new and numbered11 and 12. Just print out one and send one. The Deadline for comments to EPA has past. But you can send them to your Congressman and both Senators and ask that they be submitted to EPA for the record.

If you would rather use a formatted version, print one out from www.landrights.org.

These print out on 8 by 14 paper. But you can just print them out on 8 by 11, clip together and send them.

*Social Networking* – Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. See the bottom of this e-mail. Be sure to sign up as a friend of Chuck Cushman and also the American Land Rights Association on our page. Be sure to hit the Like button.

Call (202) 224-31121 to get the e-mail address for a staff person who works for your Congressman. Do the same for both Senators. Ask for the office of each when you call.

Issue Outline:

The EPA and Corps of Engineers are moving to seize jurisdiction and control over all U.S. waters. Since he who controls the water controls the land, these new slight-of-hand regulations would largely give the EPA and Corps substantial controls over all private and Federal land as well as nearly all waters. They will lead to many arbitrary and capricious decisions.

The regulatory Guidance policy will, if it is allowed to become final, give EPA and Corps of Engineers broader authority to regulate bodies of water that had been the responsibility of state level water managers.

The EPA’s push for greater regulatory control through the Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction amounts to the Agency overturning two U.S. Supreme Court decisions at the same time the Agency is disregarding concerns of Members of Congress.

By publishing a draft regulatory Guidance document in the Federal Register the EPA and Corps are giving field staff freedom to choose and determine jurisdictional control. The result will be more arbitrary and capricious decisions.

EPA and the Corps have effectively overturned two U. S. Supreme Court decisions that currently limit their authority and jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act to “Navigable Waters.”

The regulatory Guidance would give EPA and Corps a large degree of control over all waters of the United States.

By publishing this draft regulatory Guidance, EPA and Corps have clearly ignored the Intent of Congress. The current draft Guidance is full of vague definitions allowances for broad interpretations that show little respect for the practical implications of their actions on the American people.

The draft regulatory Guidance is intended to give EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers unprecedented control over all U.S. waters and therefore nearly all land. Because of the association of control over all US Waters to control all land, this Guidance is a clear threat to all American’s property rights.

The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers separate the vital tie between private property owners and their local communities using these new regulations.

This means the private property rights of farmers, ranchers, miners, forestry advocates and the important relationship between local communities and those property owners will be greatly changed. This relationship between private property owners and their local communities is a critical economic system that will be severely damaged by these new regulations and the change in this relationship.


If approved, this policy direction will lead to the bankruptcy of landowners, builders, farmers, ranchers and many others who must use the land and associated waters for American’s food and fiber.

Breaking the relationship between the private property owners and their local communities will create severe economic consequences to the communities themselves.

Over 150 Members of Congress have stated in a letter that they each signed that this published draft Guidance will lead to a super water regulation that includes a vast overreach by the EPA and the Corps.

While the EPA and the Corps claim that this draft regulatory Guidance is legally nonbinding, the truth is that the current Administration has defined regulatory terms that will ultimately lead to over-regulation and intrusion into individual and States’ rights.

Once again the EPA and the Corps of Engineers are broadening their jurisdiction without Congressional authority to do so. Any changes to the regulatory process of the Clean Water Act should be accomplished through transparent rule-making, notice, public involvement or legislative Congressional action.

Vague definitions and broad interpretations that empower EPA and Corps officials with ad hoc and ambiguous controls over private lands, water uses and use of Federal lands will create an economic hardship on all of rural America.

The EPA and Corps regulatory Guidance has little to do with the objective of protecting clean water. It has everything to do with
controlling Americans land and water use.

Here is an outline or the reasons to oppose the new EPA Corps Regulations.

1. The current draft Guidance is full of vague definitions allowances for broad interpretations that show little respect for the practical implications of EPA and Corps actions on the American people.

2. Congress should schedule hearings for EPA, and the Corps of Engineers to allow for through explanation and review before any changes are undertaken in EPA and Corps Jurisdiction pursuant to the Clean Water Act of 1972.

3. The jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the 1972 Clean Water Act should not be expanded beyond Congressional Intent through “Guidance" documents, back room regulations or subsequent rule making.

4. EPA and the Corps of Engineers should not be permitted to use "Guidance" documents to circumvent Congress, the Courts, and the Administrative Procedures Act.

5. The Clean Water Act of 1972 and subsequent Agency Guidance or Federal rule making should not be used to establish national land and water use Regulations.

6. No top down control of land and water use is a good idea.

7. Jurisdiction of Intrastate Waters should remain with State and Local Governments.

8. Agency administrative rules or "Guidance" should never be used to expand the application of Federal water jurisdiction in all Clean Water Act programs. The EPA and Corps jurisdiction should be limited to “Navigable Waters” as intended by Congress in the 1972 Clean Water Act.

9. Agencies should not be allowed to use Administrative "Guidance" or Federal regulations to remove American’s private property rights; water quality objectives can be achieved through existing partnerships between private landowners and their communities rather than violating Constitutionally protected property rights.

10. This draft EPA regulatory Guidance should have included a complete economic and social impact analysis before it was published for public comment. The analysis must be available for public review and comment before any final publishing of proposed EPA and COE Agency Guidance.

1. There is no evidence that a Regulatory Flexibility Act analysis and certification has been completed regarding the proposed EPA and Corps Guidance.

12. EPA and the Corps should immediately withdraw this proposed regulatory Guidance and choose instead to proceed with a more deliberate, thorough and transparent rule making process consistent with the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act, and guidance from Congress and the Courts.

13. Expanding regulations that adversely impact businesses, individuals, and communities, especially during a time of National
economic downturn, is inappropriate.

14. Congress should put a hold on the EPA and Corps regulatory Guidance until Congress has time to conduct hearings, including field hearings, prior to the implementation of any Guidance or regulations under the Clean Water Act.

15. Water quality objectives and any associated regulations must consider regional difference in landscapes and other ecological characteristics, and must require the involvement of appropriate state and local officials in their development.

16. There is no evidence that a through analysis has been completed that indicates what the affects the proposed Guidance will have on the devaluation of private property. This devaluation will result in a “Regulatory Takings” and must be compensated under the Takes Clause of the US Constitution.

17. The Clean Water Act should not deny or decrease access to or the use and enjoyment of public lands and waters.

18. So called 'Environmental' organizations have become extreme and have used radical methods to gain power and influence over EPA, the Corps, and other Federal agencies. Many of these people have been hired into this Administration’s top-level Federal policy making positions.

19. Clean Water Act rules, and other environmental programs, are often not about environmental protection, but about control over land, water, people and communities; water quality and other environmental objectives should be driven from the grassroots up instead of from the politically driven and power control top down.

20. Congress should consider the cost of this proposed Draft Guidance as to whether it really meets our nations goal of curbing excessively expensive use of Federal Regulations and overreach of Government, particularly the EPA, Corps and other Federal natural resource agencies. In protecting our nations Natural Resources we can do this more economically and efficiently through the relationships between local people and local communities that already exist.

21. States Rights regarding land and water jurisdiction should not be tampered with. EPA and COE Guidance and regulations should only enhance existing relationships, not interfere with a system that is not broken.

22. The EPA and COE Guidance should not be implemented without the approval of the appropriate state and local elected officials.

23. Clean Water is Important to All Americans. Federal Government Agencies are not the stewards of first choice in dealing with the conservation and the protection of our nations waters and associated lands.

For more information, go to www.landrights.org  to check out ALRA.

*Social Networking Update: * The American Land Rights Association now has a Page on Facebook. Please sign on as a Friend or Fan. Please click on the Like button.

Also Executive Director Chuck Cushman is also on Facebook.com. You can also find the American Land Rights Association and Chuck Cushman on LinkedIn.com. We are especially active on LinkedIn.com so send an invitation to connect and join up.

American Land Rights is on Twitter as AmLandrights.  Chuck Cushman is also on Twitter under SaveYourLand.

Please forward this message as widely as possible. The more people who get this document the better chance you have to compete with radical environmental groups.

Remember, the deadline to get your testimony into Congress is Friday, November 11.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Land Rights Network
American Land Rights Association
PO Box 400 – Battle Ground, WA 98604
Phone: 360-687-3087 – Fax: 360-687-2973
E-mail: alra@pacifier.com
Web Address: www.landrights.org
Legislative Office: 507 Seward Square SE – Washington, DC 20003

Chuck Cushman
Executive Director
American Land Rights Association
(360) 687-3087
ccushman@pacifier.com