A Water Watergate? Critics Claim EPA Power Grab

Farmers and private land owners are getting pretty nervous about maps recently released to the public by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Critics of the Clean Water Act are concerned that the EPA will use the existence of intermittent waterways to expand its influence and control across states. EPA officials flatly deny this, saying that the public is being misled.

Simply put, the EPA's Clean Water Act (CWA) was created to protect ecosystems and the public. It carefully regulates the discharge of pollutants, control of toxins, and sets wastewater standards for industry. When first introduced in 1948 as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, new regulation inflicted severe costs on private industry, heavily fining pollutant companies throughout the years and forcing them to spend a great deal of money to step up waste management.

Of course, there is a point when too much control can hurt innocent parties. That's at least what critics of the CWA are saying these days... (Scroll to read on...)

The agency has recently come under fire for being too secretive about the science behind its regulatory decisions, and is now in the midst - at the behest of congress - of taking steps to make its actions more transparent.

"The EPA has been hiding information which could upset the public and jeopardize its massive power grab of unprecedented authority over private and public water," the congressman announced on Wednesday. "It doesn't take much of a leap to conclude these highly detailed maps developed with taxpayer funds are for the purpose of enforcing this rule."

Such a dramatic accusation could certainly have played a part in blowing the threat of these maps completely out of proportion, and that seems to be how Reynolds sees it.

"EPA's job - our obligation - is to use the best data, technology, science, and yes, maps, to protect the water that is absolutely vital to our daily lives for drinking, recreation, and the economy," he reiterated in a statement on Thursday. "Maps such as these are part of that overall effort - to provide clean water to every American."