The Alabama Farmers Federation has a bone to pick with the Environmental Protection Agency because of the new Clean Water Act regulations that have just been made public this week. Alabama farmers are concerned that, according to this law, every type of running water that is on their land will be subjected to severe scrutiny by the EPA and that their agriculture will be affected.
They also were offended by the fact that the EPA has not even considered asking farmers for any input regarding the new regulations that regard water protection and which will affect their ownership over their land. The new regulations are a lot more strict regarding the streams and wetlands that can be affected by pollution coming from agricultural activity and what worries farmers most, is how the new regulations will impact the drainage ditches on their farming areas.
However, the Environmental Protection Agency, tried to assure the angry farmers that they only mean to test and insure the safety of waters that are tributaries to larger rivers. According to their representative, the EPA`s purpose is to make sure that no pollution drainage will affect the larger rivers that flow across the country.
The new EPA`s regulation regarding the Clean Water Act have also been criticized by the supporters of private property rights and they have said that they are afraid that every little stream running on their land, will be an open invitation for the EPA inspectors to come and collect samples.
The EPA`s administrator, Gina McCarthy, assured the concerned citizens, that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA will inspect only those stream of water that have a “direct and significant” involvement in the larger waters downstream.
GIna McCarthy also said, that the EPA will only intervene if the owner of the land, in which the stream or wetland in question is found, plans to either pollute the water or destroy them.
Environmentalists all over the country have saluted the new regulations and have even gone as far as saying that the only people against this law, are the ones who are polluting the waters and that they must be stopped from further harming the environment. Environmentalists also said this is the best measure taken for protecting clean waters in a decade.
The new regulations have been adopted in order to assure the safety of 60% of the country`s wetlands that were left out of the Clean Act Regulations from 2001 and 2006.
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