This is probably a done deal. The public comment period is merely a formality. If you can float a rubber duck in it at least once every 50 years, it's going to be a navigable waterway. They will respond to a few comments in a fashion that will solidify their position. They won't respond to hypotheticals, even if they try to enforce rules based on hypothetical situations. They're tweeking it so it will pass the smell test with the majority. This will look good on paper, and, even if well-intentioned, will be an absolute nightmare for farmers. This will probably add 25%+ to both the budget and workforce of the EPA, which is this agency's true goal.
I do hope they apply this to everyone fairly. They won't. I have to have permits and training if I'm going to spread manure and fertilizers. Paperwork left and right, setbacks here and limits there. Homeowner can spread tons to the acre right in the ditch. No rules, no reg's. to stop them. Exact same fertilizers that are available to the farmers are available to homeowners in most localities. Gotta keep that grass green. Seems a homeowner with a low area in their yard shouldn't be able to disturb that natural lowland adjacent to a ditch/navigable waterway, or the navigable waterway/ditch itself. No fertilizer, chemicals, mowing, draining, etc.. Tall grass/weeds prevent erosion and absorb runoff. The EPA won't dare enforce any of this on the average homeowner.
Rules and laws will never stop those who will willfully violate them. They only provide a framework for punishing after the fact. Rapes, murders and larceny still happen every day. Some offenders return to society to become offenders yet again after being punished. More rules and laws tend to overstep common sense. Some doofus kid that brings a girly-mag to school has to register as a s&x offender for life? What a country.
There are also those on this site that always B&M about their neighbors lowering their property value. What would you say if the feds stepped in and told you that you couldn't live in your house anymore, even if it was perfectly habitable, and the locals still wanted to collect the property taxes on the your house? This is going to happen to farmers in the coming decade. Regulations are going to take large portions of ground out of production and make more ground less productive. I doubt the farmers will be getting property tax brakes at the state and local levels. It'll still be classified as farmland. You just won't be able to farm it (properly) anymore.
I do hope the US develops a sudden love for foreign food. That's where everything, including American cheese will come from very soon.
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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