Hendry/Glades county Farm Bureau member Katherine English participated in a national panel of small business owners to discuss the implications of the federal government’s WOTUS overreach.
English, a citrus grower and cattle producer from Alva, provided an overview of the uncertainty faced by farmers, ranchers, homebuilders and more during the hearing titled “Small Business Perspectives on the Impacts of the Biden Administration’s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Rule.”
“Farmers and ranchers’ livelihoods depend on healthy soil and clean water. We support the Clean Water Act and its goals,” English explained during her opening statement to the committee. “What we cannot support is a Waters of the United States rule that is so ambiguous it creates unmanageable risk and confusion for farmers.”
English testified that the proposed WOTUS rule greatly expands the federal government’s reach over private property and that the significant nexus test, currently under scrutiny in the U.S. Supreme Court, allows the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to aggregate and regulate waters that would not otherwise be subject to federal jurisdiction.
The full hearing recording is available here.
English’s written testimony is available here.
