WV Farm Bureau Magazine August 2014 | Page 11

Proposed EPA Water Regulations Could Impact West Virginia Farmers By Patrick Morrisey, West Virginia Attorney General S ince being elected your Attorney General in 2012, I have spent countless hours fighting to protect West Virginians from federal overreach. As the chief legal officer for our State, the Attorney General’s Office has made it a top priority to review every line of every page of federal mandates aimed at the hard-working people of West Virginia.   The Environmental Protection Agency has set its sights again on West Virginia. Its latest proposed rule redefines the scope of the Clean Water Act and will hurt businesses across our State, especially the farming community.   Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA has regulatory authority over the nation’s “navigable waters,” known as “Waters of the United States.”  The proposed rule, however, imposes unnecessary and ambiguous regulations over millions of acres of water and land that the state has traditionally regulated, and which arguably have no impact on navi