National Association of Wheat Growers
Contact: Mariah Wollweber, 202.975.1249, mwollweber@wheatworld.org
On July 9, 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced their intent to initiate a new rulemaking process that replaces the Navigable Waters Protection Rule and announced a request for stakeholder input. Today the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) provided public comment in alignment with its policy resolutions, which supports the Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR).
“The Navigable Waters Protection Rule provided farmers with clarity on the waters that would be jurisdictional under the Clean Water Act and included important provisions for farmers, including addressing prior converted cropland,” said NAWG CEO, Chandler Goule. “The NWPR also recognized that important agricultural water features such as farm ponds, and certain irrigation and drainage ditches should not be considered as jurisdictional waters under the Clean Water Act. While we appreciate the opportunity to provide input to the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers, farmers don’t need more uncertainty through yet another regulatory process. NAWG supports maintaining the provisions of the NWPR. We recognize that recent court decisions have complicated this process, but we urge the EPA and Army Corps to maintain important agriculture provisions of the NWPR that provided the clarity that growers have been seeking.”
NAWG will continue to engage in the process as the Army Corps and EPA move through this process.
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