Full Senate Vote Imminent Concerning Defunding of EPA Corps wetlands Regulations!!!!

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Help Preserve National Sovereignty, Support This Bill!!!

Land Rights Network
American Land Rights Association
PO Box 400 – Battle Ground, WA 98604
Phone: [phone] – Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
Web Address: http://www.landrights.org
Legislative Office: 507 Seward Square SE – Washington, DC 20003

Senate Vote To Defund EPA Corps Wetlands Regulations Anytime Soon

Forward this e-mail to your entire e-mail list. Very important.

Tell Both Your Senators To Vote Yes On “Barrasso Heller
Amendment” to Defund EPA Corps Jurisdiction expansion.

Call both your Senators at [phone].

The EPA and Corps have published new regulations expanding the term
“Navigable” so it could cover a bird feeder in your back yard.

Don’t let the EPA and Corps get away with expanding their own
jurisdiction and undermining the limits Congress placed on them by
limiting their Jurisdiction to “Navigable Waters” in the Clean
Water Act.

The EPA and Corps actually want to control all waters of the United
States and all activities affecting those waters.

You do not want the EPA and Corps in your back yard.

Senate Vote Coming Soon To Defund the new EPA and Corps of Engineers
Clean Water Act Regulations.

Please make your calls now! Keep calling until you hear that the Senate has voted. Call, call again.
Keep calling. Call your friends.

The Senate will likely vote in the next two weeks on an
Appropriations Bill Amendment sponsored by Senators John Barrasso
(R-WY) and Dean Heller (R-NV) to the Energy and Water Development
Appropriations bill for fiscal year (FY) 2012 that would Defund the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (Corps) attempt to expand its
jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act (CWA) through guidance
documents and/or regulation.

-----This is a full Senate vote.

Action Items:

-----1. CALL BOTH YOUR SENATORS now to urge them to vote YES on the
BARRASSO/HELLER CWA (Clean Water Act Amendment) (EPA Corps Wetlands
jurisdiction). Call any Senator at [phone]. Ask for the staff
person who handles Clean Water Act issues. Tell them the vote will be
scored by the League of Private Property Voters.

-----2. Forward this message quickly as widely as possible. This is
very important.

-----3. Do not assume your friends and allies know about this vote.
You must get everyone you know to call.

-----4. If one or both your Senators are Democrats it is especially
important that you call, fax and e-mail them. Get your neighbors,
friends and business associates to call.

Background:

In May of this year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and
the Corps proposed a "guidance" document that attempts to expand
their jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act (CWA) to include almost
all waters across the country.

In May of this year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and
the Corps proposed a "guidance" document that attempts to expand
their jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act (CWA) to include almost
all waters across the country.

The guidance has not been finalized yet, but the agencies are
quickly moving forward to a rulemaking redefining the term "waters of
the United States." It is likely the agencies may send the proposed
rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) within the next two
weeks, which is the last stop before a regulation is officially
proposed or finalized.

The agencies intend to have a final rule by January 2012.
American Land Rights expects the proposed rule to contain much of the
language from the CWA guidance and would therefore expand the types
and number of waters subject to regulation under the CWA.

More waters falling under "waters of the U.S." would expand the
permitting universe under the entire CWA, including Sec. 402 NPDES
permits, Sec. 404 Dredge and Fill permits (wetlands), and Sec. 311
Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure plans.

The Amendment would do two things: (1) prohibit the Corps from
finalizing the guidance and (2) prohibit the Corps from promulgating
a rulemaking redefining "waters of the U.S."

*Below are talking points for your phone calls:*

* The guidance uses broad language to define things such as
"tributaries" that could lead to almost any roadside, agricultural
ditch
or intermittent stream being subject to EPA and the Corps'
jurisdiction.

* The guidance defines "traditional navigable waters" as any water
that supports one-time recreational use (one trip in a canoe down a
stream would qualify a water as a "traditional navigable water"). In
the history of the Clean Water Act, the term "traditional navigable
water" has only been used to describe major rivers that can float
commercial vehicles like barges.

* Under this guidance, waters do not have to have a surface
connection to a larger body of water that actually moves goods in
interstate commerce to be subject to EPA/Corps' jurisdiction. The
water body does not even have to have actual water in it for much of
the year to be jurisdictional.

* It allows the agencies to "aggregate" similar types of waters
 (small streams, adjacent wetlands, ditches or isolated waters)
within a
watershed. This means the agencies only have to make a
"jurisdictional determination" on one water body to then get
jurisdiction over numerous others without considering them
individually.

* The guidance goes beyond both the Supreme Court decisions in SWANCC
and Rapanos because it takes the court's narrow opinion on wetlands
and applies it to all types of waters.

* The amendment would prevent the Corps from finalizing this
guidance, and would also stop the Corps from initiating a rulemaking
that would more broadly define "waters of the United States."

Please support American Land Rights. ALRA is sending hundreds of
thousands of letters, faxes and e-mails to alert your allies about
the threat from the new Obama EPA Corps of Engineers regulations.