There are several disturbing aspects about H.R. 5088,
America’s Commitment to Clean Water Act, authored by Minnesota Congressman James Oberstar and introduced in April.
Oberstar’s bill proposes changing the language in the 1972 federal Clean Water Act, exchanging the term ‘Navigable’ with ‘Waters of the U.S.,’ which would include: all waters currently used, used in the past, or susceptible to use in future commerce; all interstate and international waters; and all other waters and their tributaries, including intrastate lakes, rivers, streams, mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, ponds, meadows and sloughs. In water-rich states like Minnesota, it’s hard to imagine any activity that doesn’t
affect water.
Thisbill would be a job killer. It is opposed by trade associations representing mining, forestry, agriculture, energy, recreation, manufacturing, and others. The only job opportunities would be for environmental attorneys, as it would open the floodgates for endless litigation.
Thebill is opposed by the National Association of Counties and the Association of Minnesota Counties. It is also in conflict with a 1995 Minnesota water rights statute, authored former Speaker of the House Irv Anderson, former Senators Doug Johnson and Bob Lessard, Senator Tom Bakk, and Representative Tom Rukavina.
Rep. Oberstar has used his position as chairman of the powerful Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in an attempt to get a previous version of the bill passed without a hearing. Only a last-minute appeal by a handful of Democrats on his committee prevented the bill from going to the floor of the House for a vote.
From a legal and technical standpoint, this issue is complicated. From a political standpoint, it is simple. Do people want more power and influence concentrated in Washington or closer to home? Past experience in Minnesota and elsewhere tells us that water quality and other environmental problems can be solved faster, better, and cheaper at the state and local level, with less help from environmental attorneys and others with hidden agendas, and more help from honest scientists and average people of common sense and good will.
Don Parmeter
St. Paul
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