A4 Opinion wallowa.com June 10, 2015 Wallowa County Chieftain Waters of the U.S. rule needs rewrite I t happens a lot in Washington, D.C. An agency sets out to clarify regulations and the outcome is worse than the starting point. Think of the Food EDITORIAL Safety Modernization Act. Once the folks at The voice of the Chieftain the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began to put their heads together, the simple intent of Congress to make sure food is safe to eat turned into a Frankenstein monster of what-ifs. Ask onion growers, who were forced to prove to the FDA that their crop had never been linked to a food-borne illness. And ask breweries, which had for thousands of years fed their spent grain to cattle without ever creating a food safety problem. Only after members of Congress interceded and researchers proved what experience had already demonstrated did the FDA decide to reverse itself on those issues. And think of the new Waters of the United States rule. A simple effort on the part of the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers WRUHFRQFLOHFRQÀLFWLQJFRXUWGHFLVLRQVWXUQHGLQWRDQRWKHU Frankenstein rule. Actually, we would characterize it as Frankenstein on steroids. It’s 297 pages of bureaucratese. ³,WOHDYHVDOOWKHSUHYLRXVO\LOOGH¿QHGWHUPVLQSODFH like ‘adjacent,’ ‘wetland’ and ‘discharge,’ while adding HTXDOO\PDOOHDEOHWHUPVVXFKDVµÀRRGSODLQ¶µWULEXWDU\¶ DQGµVLJQL¿FDQWQH[XV¶´VDLG05HHG+RSSHUWKH3DFL¿F Legal Foundation attorney who successfully argued one of the cases before the U.S. Supreme Court that caused the EPA to rewrite its rule. “And it provides that federal RI¿FLDOVFDQGHFLGHRQDFDVHE\FDVHEDVLVZKHWKHUDQ\ µRWKHUZDWHUV¶VKRXOGEHUHJXODWHG´ Another major objection that the Capital Press editorialized on in the past is the EPA and Corps provide no path for appealing an agency’s decision other than going through a jurisdictional review by the Corps. $FFRUGLQJWR+RSSHUUXOLQJVIURPWKHWKWKDQG 9th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals differ on whether landowners’ due process rights are protected in similar cases. If the EPA wanted to clarify something, it could have guaranteed a citizen the right to challenge an agency determination in court after a jurisdiction review. Because of its bulk and unclear language the rule created or left open as many questions as it answered. That is what made farmers and ranchers — and other landowners — most nervous. There’s on old term we like a lot: Cowboy talk. It’s a synonym for plain language. Instead of trying to impress each other with their command of obscure and unclear terms, the folks at the EPA and Corps should have written a rule that reads something like this: We promise to leave farmers and ranchers alone unless we can prove VFLHQWL¿FDOO\DQGEH\RQGDVKDGRZRIDGRXEWWKDWUXQRII from a farm or ranch is polluting a navigable stream, river or lake protected under the Clean Water Act. Any of our determinations can be appealed in federal court. They would have saved 296 pages of vagueness and gibberish and done a better job. USPS No. 665-100 P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828 2I¿FH1:)LUVW6W(QWHUSULVH2UH 3KRQH‡)D[ :DOORZD&RXQW\¶V1HZVSDSHU6LQFH Enterprise, Oregon M EMBER O REGON N EWSPAPER P UBLISHERS A SSOCIATION P UBLISHER E DITOR R EPORTER R EPORTER A D S ALES CONSULTANT G RAPHIC D ESIGNER O FFICE MANAGER Marissa Williams, marissa@bmeagle.com Rob Ruth, editor@wallowa.com Stephen Tool, stool@wallowa.com Kathleen Ellyn, kellyn@wallowa.com Brooke Pace, bpace@wallowa.com Robby Day, rday@wallowa.com Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com P UBLISHED EVERY W EDNESDAY BY : EO Media Group 3HULRGLFDO3RVWDJH3DLGDW(QWHUSULVHDQGDGGLWLRQDOPDLOLQJRI¿FHV Subscription rates (includes online access) Wallowa County Out-of-County 1 Year $40.00 $57.00 6XEVFULSWLRQVPXVWEHSDLGSULRUWRGHOLYHU\ See the Wallowa County Chieftain on the Internet www.wallowa.com facebook.com/Wallowa | twitter.com/wcchieftain 32670$67(5 — Send address changes to Wallowa County Chieftain 32%R[ (QWHUSULVH25 Contents copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Area talent disproportionate It’s amazing the difference a few weeks of rain can make. The Zumwalt Prairie that was dusty and getting low on drinking water is now verdant and ponds are full. I haven’t moved sprinklers or irri- gated for three weeks and the grass is get- ting ahead of the cattle. It looks like the drought in Texas and 2NODKRPD LV EURNHQ +DOI RI 2NODKRPD and most of Texas is under water. See what happens when the Bible Belt prays for rain? I hope they have learned their lesson. I talk- ed to my friend Ace Berry who now lives just south of Oklahoma City and he is on high ground but received 17 inches of rain in May and it is still coming. ,FDQ¶W¿JXUHRXWZKHWKHUOLYLQJLQWKLV beautiful county spurs creativity and tal- ent or whether it attracts talented people. I lived in a county about this size that has a population of over 500,000 people. I knew one guy that could play a guitar. I didn’t know anyone that had written a book, I knew a couple of people that were artistic but that was the extent of talent I knew about. I had the opportunity to at- tend the spring Wallowa County Music Alliance program held in the Odd Fellows hall a couple of weeks ago and am still amazed at all the musical talent here. The fact that the program covered old country music was a plus. Everything from Jim- PLH5RGJHUVPXVLFWR+DQN:LOOLDPVDQG OPEN RANGE Barrie Qualle the Sons of the Pioneers. The musicians that performed represented only part of the vast local musical talent. In addition to the musical talent we are blessed with many artists, writers and sculptors. All this talent crammed into an agricultural county of 7,000. When I told my family I was moving to Wallowa County they told me it would be a cultur- al wasteland. Every time they visit I rub their noses in that idea. ,GRQ¶W À\ YHU\ RIWHQ DQ\PRUH WKDQN God. Being put into a lead-up like we are D EXQFK RI FDWWOH WR ¿QDOO\ EH SURFHVVHG by TSA adds a lot to the misery of travel- LQJ7KHQWR¿QGWKDW76$IDLOVSHUFHQW RIWKHWHVWVWKH\UXQRQWKHPWR¿QGJXQV and explosives, makes you wonder if there isn’t a better way. I suggest issuing a load- ed .45 to all passengers when they board. That would put a stop to terrorism and also PDNH WKH À\LQJ SXEOLF PRUH FRXUWHRXV GXULQJWKHÀLJKW I see that some Muslims are demand- ing that the welfare food they are given be of Islamic code, whatever that is. They also insist that their women must wear a face covering even for driver license photos. It seems that all minorities want to have WKHLURZQVHWRIODZV&KULV5RFNZKRLV %ODFNKDVDJUHDW