Iowa senators Ernst, Grassley expect Waters of the U.S. rule-making issue heading to court

CEDAR RAPIDS - Sen. Joni Ernst expects the U.S. House to follow the Senate's lead in approving her resolution that would void new environmental rules known as the Waters of the U.S. - WOTUS - that the EPA says would protect waterways from pollution, but are opposed by farm and business groups as overly restrictive and costly to follow.

That would force the president to 'decide whether he's siding with bureaucrats and their decisions on this WOTUS rule or whether he's going to side with the American people and the quite obvious pushback from the states and the stakeholders,” freshman Republican Ernst ltold reporters Thursday.

However, Sen. Chuck Grassley, who supported her resolution, predicted the issue is likely to be settled in the courts. While that will take longer than resolving it in Congress, he is encouraged that federal courts already have found the WOTUS rule-making process was flawed.

Ernst agreed it appears the rule is illegal 'and likely to be scrapped by the courts, but that process could take years and all at the expense of average Americans.”

'The heart of this debate,” Ernst said, 'is about how much authority the federal government and unelected bureaucrats have to regulate what is done on private land.”

Instead of responding to the legitimate concerns of stakeholders, 'the EPA and its allies pushed their own agenda attempting to drive support for the rule while belittling the concerns of the public,” Grassley said. He's heard plenty from Iowans at his town hall meetings about the rules that expand the EPA's authority to regulate water on private land. Ernst cited an Iowa Farm Bureau analysis that found EPA would have jurisdiction over water on 97 percent of Iowa land.

He called WOTUS 'the biggest power grab in the history of our government.”

Ernst called the rule confusing and a threat to 'the livelihoods of rural communities and middle class Americans … (and) threatens to impede small businesses, manufacturing, and agriculture, which is the backbone of this country.”

As written, Grassley said, the WOTUS rule could result in 'significant red tape and expense for Iowa farmers, homebuilders, golf course managers, construction companies and probably a lot of other people, as these businesses continue routine decisions about how best to use the land and run their businesses.'

And in what he called 'true Washington bureaucratic dysfunction,” the rule could hamper conservation and water quality projects.

'That's kind of ironic, isn't it?” the New Hartford farmer said.

l Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com