The WOTUS rule is one of the most ignorant, no not ignorant just plain STOOPID government rules ever published. I was working with farmers every day when the first iteration of this was put into play. If a farmer has a 5 inch rain occur in a 24 hour period on his own property, there will be a lot of standing water appear in low spots all over his farmland. He owns the land and in many cases there is no mortgage on the property and taxes have been paid on the same land.
However if he is unlucky, some pencil necked geek with a tablet computer, a notepad, a smart phone, and a pocket full of business cards, ink pens, cough drops and handkerchiefs in a Prius will drive up, get out of the car, hand the hired hand a business card, and tell him he is going to inspect the farm. Hired hand looks at the business card and says, I don't think you are going to do a damn thing but back in your car and wait for the boss to get back from town. Govt man says when will that be, and the hired hand said that when the boss went to town he did not usually get back till the next day and sometimes it was 2 days. The govt geek thought of trying to throw his 135 lbs around to see if he could buffalo this hayseed hick, but after looking the hand over once more he sniffed and proudly said I'll be back.
That is a true story as the hired hand is a good friend of mine and he could have rolled the govt man up and stuffed him in one of his pants pockets and placed him back in his car and shut the door, without getting winded or breaking a sweat. He smiled the whole time he was telling me the story. Govt man came back 2 days later and told the first person he saw that he wanted to see the owner. Hired hand went and found farmer Joe and brought him around to see the govt guy. Govt guy tells farmer Joe that he is there to inspect the farm land and cite him for all the standing water he had on the farm. Farmer Joe said OK and he said I am going to send William with you to make sure you do not stray off my land. He pulled William, over and said do not answer any questions he asks you. Whatever he asks you just say I don't know.
All the standing water was gone. Ground was still muddy, but no water to be found. It had just naturally percolated down in the dry soil, or in a few cases drained down some sink holes. Govt man came back to the farm stead all hot and looking like he was going to pass out. He told Farmer Joe everything looked fine today but he promised to be back the next time it rained. Farmer Joe thanked him for the warning and turned and walked off leaving a fuming nitwit to drive off in his wet clothes and mud caked boots.
WOTUS
Bookmarks