Sample Letter

Water Docket

Environmental Protection Agency

Mail Code 2822T

1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW

Washington, DC 20460

Attn: Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-2011-0409

RE: Comments on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Guidance Regarding Identification of Waters Protected by the Clean Water Act, Docket No. EPA-HQ-OW-2011-0409

To Whom It May Concern:

As a farmer and landowner from (insert location), I oppose the “Guidance Regarding Identification of Waters Protected by the Clean Water Act (CWA)” as proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). 

 

While I appreciate the opportunity to comment on the Guidance, this process falls far short of a normal notice-and-comment rulemaking.  It deeply concerns me that the agencies are essentially expanding their regulatory reach under the CWA without affording farmers and ranchers from around the country, and others impacted, a formal opportunity to provide meaningful comment on the effects of such action. 

As a result of this Guidance agency field staff will have an expanded list of options they can use to support a determination that wet or even dry land on my property is a “water of the United States”  Ditches, ponds, and other wet features are commonplace on agricultural land and now face the threat of federal regulation. 

Establishing regulatory controls over virtually all waters will come at a monumental cost to farmers and landowners, from the expenditure of time and money to obtain permits to potential land use controls that negatively affect agricultural production.  These impacts must be given more thorough consideration. 

There is no doubt the EPA and the Corps intend to and will have a significant impact on CWA permitting and enforcement nation-wide because the Guidance broadly expands the scope of the agencies’ CWA jurisdiction.  I oppose this effort and urge the EPA and Corps to refrain from moving forward with a final Guidance.

Sincerely,