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Ohio Farm Bureau members were part of a nationwide campaign to stop more federal regulations on isolated wetlands.

The effort involved county Farm Bureau boards throughout Ohio as well as Farm Bureau members in many other states who submitted comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about how non-navigable, intrastate, isolated wetlands are defined. Hundreds of postcards were delivered to the EPA earlier this month.

The action came after the EPA announced it would rethink the definition of "waters of the United States" as it currently appears in the Clean Water Act. In January 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the U.S. EPA had exceeded their authority under the Clean Water Act by claiming jurisdiction over non-navigable, isolated waters. The Supreme Court’s ruling clarified that both federal agencies had the authority to regulate navigable waters only – not isolated wetlands, according to Larry Antosch, OFBF director of environmental research.

After the Supreme Court’s ruling, Ohio, which previously had relied on the federal Clean Water Act rules to regulate wetlands, established its own permitting process, which is regulated through the Ohio EPA.

"The U.S. EPA, though, is getting some pressure from environmental groups to go back and change the definition of ‘waters of the United States’ in the Clean Water Act so they oversee those isolated wetlands," Antosch explained. "Farm Bureau maintains that the state has a variety of tools and is doing a fine job on its own, and we don’t need a redundant set of federal regulations."

U.S. EPA was seeking the comments before it drafts new rules. Farm Bureau will continue to monitor the process and will comment as needed as rules are released.