Congressman Paul Gosar Tells the EPA to Stop Their Regulatory Overreach on the Clean Water Act

Press Release

U.S. Congressman Paul Gosar, DDS (AZ-01) and 170 Members of Congress sent a bipartisan letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers to express their concerns that the agencies are circumventing proper procedure and pushing through a dramatic expansion of their powers by using the Clean Water Act.

In December 2010, EPA and the Corps sent draft "Clean Water Protection Guidance" to the Office of Management and Budget for regulatory review. By the agencies' own admission, this "Guidance" will substantively change federal policy with respect to which waters fall under the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and significantly increase the scope of the federal government's power to regulate waters.

"This is just another example of the Environmental Protection Agency's attempt to circumvent Congress and develop rules and regulations that far exceed the authority granted to the agency under existing public law," said Gosar. "In addition, these rules and regulations are being developed without transparency and with little consideration for the negative impacts they may impose on our local economies."

"Under this new guidance, a bureaucrat at the EPA will be able to dictate radical new rules on Arizona water," Gosar continued. "I firmly believe that we need to draw a careful balance between the environment and economic concerns, but the EPA's overreach must be stopped before these strict regulations stifle economic productivity in our state."

The effect of the "Guidance" will be to reverse decisions by the United States Supreme Court that recognized limits to the federal government's regulatory authority, and to undermine the long-standing federal-state partnership in the regulation of waters. This expansion will result in confusion, permitting delays, and added costs and burdens for communities, farmers, small businesses, industries and other Arizonans.

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