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NCBA Encourages Comments on WOTUS

Kelly Marshall

The comment period for the repeal of the Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) ends Monday, August 28, 2017 and members of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) want to encourage farmers and ranchers to participate. The organization has released a video featuring Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt urges farmers and ranchers to let their voice be heard.

“When comments are made a part of a record – as rule-making – we have an obligation to review them,” Pruitt says in NCBA’s video. “It helps inform our decision-making process; it helps us make better decisions. And so we want farmers and ranchers across this country to provide comments.”

The video was filmed during the Administrator’s “State Action Tour” during which he met with ranchers and received input about how to proceed in the future.

“We’re trying to fix the challenges from the 2015 rule,” explains Pruitt, “where the Obama Administration re-imagined their authority under the Clean Water Act and defined a Water of the United States as being a puddle, a dry creek bed, and ephemeral drainage ditches across this country, which created great uncertainty… and we are fixing that, and then we’re hearing from stakeholders about how to get it right as we go forward.”

Ag Groups, AgWired Animal, NCBA