KNOCK-KNOCK

(Year 2020)  Knock-knock!  Who’s there?  The EPA Water Police!  The EPA who??? 

The Environmental Protection Agency Water Police, Sir, and we’re sorry to have to inform you that your well, stream and pond have been taken over and closed to your use by the EPA and are now regulated under the Clean Water Act.  Any use of your well, stream or pond must be stopped as of six months from today, giving you ample time to make other arrangements for your home water use.

Homeowner: But that’s outrageous!  I’ve used my well, stream and pond at my home here in Mariposa for 40 years with no problem!  I have fruit trees and a vegetable garden!  My water is good!  How can you do this to me? 

EPA Policeman: Under regulations FS-2014-0001-0001, Forest Service Directive on Groundwater Resource Management, enacted after 8/4/14, and EPA-HQ-OW-2011-0880, Waters of the U.S. Under the Clean Water Act, enacted after 10/20/14, the FS and EPA have the authority to regulate ALL WATER in the U.S., including usually dry watersheds and ground water.  This may be a hardship for some like yourself, but you must realize that I’m told it’s for the GREATER GOOD.

Homeowner: But Sir!?  I understand the U.S. Supreme Court has already defined “waters of the U.S.” in Rapanos v U.S., and SWANCC v U.S., giving the Federal government jurisdiction over all NAVIGABLE water, and leaving the rest under state, local and private control.  I assure you, Sir, that my well, stream and small pond are NOT navigable!

And please let me remind you of the very clear Supreme Court definition of “navigable waters”: “Relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water forming geographic features that are described in ordinary parlance as streams, oceans, rivers and lakes.”  And the “significant nexus” thereof is:  “…a continuous surface water connection to a relatively permanent water body, such that it’s difficult to determine where the water body ends and the wetlands begin.”

I also watched the Subcommittee Hearing on Water Resources and Environment, called Potential Impacts of Proposed Changes to the Clean Water Act Jurisdictional Rule held June 11, 2014, with testimony by the Western Governors Association, the Western States Water Council and other very concerned stakeholders, who told the EPA that in unilaterally taking out the word NAVIGABLE, they were acting arbitrarily and with subterfuge to do end runs around them and many other important stakeholders, including Congress and especially the Supreme Court!  I thought that would be the end of it!

 EPA Policeman: I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I’m really on your side, and I can see you’re not aware that at least 65 well-funded environmental groups like Earthjustice, WildEarthGuardians, Sierra Club and others, have banded together, and continuously sue the FS to get what they want, in a process called “Sue and Settle”, and what’s more, the public picks up the tab, millions a year!

Homeowner:  That’s terrible, and if that’s true, in effect the environmental groups really are running our public lands agencies.  Can’t the FS do something to stop it?

EPA Policeman:  I know I shouldn’t be telling you this either, but the FS now permits certain “favored” stakeholders, i.e., the environmental groups, to help write their Forest Plans.  In my opinion, the people and counties who will be affected by the new rules and regulations should really be helping to write the plans.

Just between you and me, I’m sympathetic because I also have a home with a well, and I will be dealing with this very same issue very soon.  But my hands are tied!  I just got this job, and need it to feed my family, so what can I do?

Homeowner: You can’t do anything now, but you could have urged your Supervisors to comment, and commented yourself, when the comment period was still open!  I commented, did you?

EPA Policeman: No I didn’t, because I didn’t know anything about it!  As you can see, I haven’t been involved in these kinds of issues, but from now on, I sure will be!  I’ll ask my County representative what the Supervisors did about it.  Surely they opposed these unfair, unnecessary, and impractical rules!

Homeowner: I understand many County Boards of Supervisors didn’t comment, because they didn’t consider this a County issue, despite the fact that these R&Rs will cause all homeowners, and every landowner, plus all businesses, a bunch of trouble and expense, put another layer or two of bureaucracy in place, and have a bad effect on our economy.

But I hear the EPA is rapidly losing all credibility, because they’ve been caught several times using fraudulent science and exaggerating studies, in order to enact more and more restrictive rules and regulations.  You can google this and see what’s going on right under our noses!

EPA Policeman: But why would the EPA hierarchy and leaders allow such fraud?!  I’ve always thought the EPA just wanted to keep our air and water clean!  Don’t they care about the economic burden all these rules and regulations will put on the public, and all the layers of government that must implement them?

Homeowner: I believe the same environmental groups that are running our public lands agencies, must now be running our current government and the EPA, FDA, USFW, DEA and IRS!  Why don’t we ask them WHY? 

DON’T BE CAUGHT LIKE THIS HOMEOWNER!  Go to regulations.gov, enter the titles and ID numbers before the dates above, and comment right now!

For more information, contact Evie Wilson, wilsonevie@hotmail.com (209-742-4261) or Wendy Brown-Barry, wendybrown@sti.net.


Evie Wilson
Mariposa, CA