Farmers, ranchers slam Biden 'attack on farmers' with EPA water rule: 'Complete example of govt. overreach'

Farmers and ranchers are sounding off about environmental regulations President Biden signed off on that create "real uncertainty" and "an administrative nightmare" for their industry.

The Waters of the United States ("WOTUS") rule finalized earlier this month reinstated Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations from the pre-Trump era, that protected small streams, wetlands and waterways as part of the Clean Water Act. 

The Biden administration put forward their rule before the Supreme Court is set to hand down their ruling on a WOTUS-related case in Sackett v. EPA this spring. 

In that case the court will determine "whether the Ninth Circuit set forth the proper test for determining whether wetlands are ‘waters of the United States’ under the Clean Water Act."

In the meantime, farmers and ranchers say they are in limbo over what they can do on their property.

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Todd Wilkinson, a rancher from South Dakota and president-elect of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), told Fox News Digital that because of the Biden administration's ruling, "producers are basically in a no man's land [now] for a period of months," until the Sackett ruling comes out.

Wilkinson said that because of his property’s natural landscape in the "prairie pothole region," the law "creates real uncertainty" about what qualifies as federally protected wetland.

"If I don’t know whether I have an ephemeral feature that’s going to be impacted… I have to error on the side of not making that improvement to our ground, and really this has put us back into complete uncertainty…at least until we have the Sackett decision," he said.

For younger ranchers in particular, the rule has created "an administrative nightmare" for the newer producers trying to figure out how to expand their farm to increase production while still complying with the regulations, he said.

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If the court sides with Biden's EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which holds co-jurisdiction over WOTUS, there will be bureaucratic hoops ranchers will have to jump through that cause "significant delays," he said.

"[W]hat we're going to end up with is the producer is going to have to hire engineers. Get certain wetland determinations… You simply cannot get those kinds of determinations in a reasonable time frame… You're typically looking at a year or more for all the various agencies to give you their determination," he said.

Wilkinson said the EPA rule has been an ongoing problem for nearly a decade. "It seems like it never ends," he admitted.

When President Trump rolled back some of these regulations, he left farmers with a "real meat and potatoes rule" that simplified what federal agencies would be involved in making these determinations, the farmer explained. But his Navigable Waters Protection Rule was deemed unconstitutional after just a few months.

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Northern California farmer and newly elected Rep. John Duarte, a Republican, also shared with Fox News Digital how the regulations harmed his family in his view.

Duarte said his farm was fined nearly $3 million by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Justice under the Obama administration over the rule. He added a federal agent claimed he was "deep ripping federal wetlands" when he was planting wheat in his newly-purchased land, and he said they never got to present evidence in court or offer expert witnesses to "challenge the conclusions of the Army Corps of Engineers."

In the end, the farmer and his family had to pay around $5 million in combination of the settlement to the government, legal fees and bank fees.

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After the Army Corps of Engineers and DOJ escalated their fines and penalties recommended from $28 million to $40 million, Duarte’s attorneys recommended he settle or the suit would "eviscerate" his family.

"Because of the nature of our ruling we wouldn’t have any opportunity to appeal," he said.

The heavy penalty from the government took its toll on his family.

"It's been devastating," Duarte said. "We still haven't been able to farm our property, so it has been a financial hardship on my family" he said.

The rule is "a fiasco" for farmers, he lamented. "It's a complete example of government overreach."

"The only thing that makes us unique is that we fought back," Duarte said.

"Farm families all over California are being shaken down by the government on similar claims. Very, very seldom do these families do what we did and try to fight back. They just pay six-figure fines or seven-figure fines in order to go forward," he told Fox News Digital.

He slammed the "misguided" regulations and said they should be an "embarrassment" to anyone who works in the federal government. 

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Last Thursday the NCBA filed a lawsuit against the EPA challenging the Biden administration’s WOTUS rule. 

"The Biden administration’s WOTUS definition is an attack on farmers and ranchers and NCBA will be fighting back in court," said NCBA Chief Counsel Mary-Thomas Hart in a press release. "The rule removes longstanding, bipartisan exclusions for small and isolated water features on farms and ranches and adds to the regulatory burden cattle producers are facing under this administration. We look forward to challenging this rule in court and ensuring that cattle producers are treated fairly under the law."

FOX Business' Greg Wehner contributed to this report.