Submitted
Dear Editor,
I read with interest the Benton County Enterprise article “The EPA Wants to Own Water, Including In Benton County”. It gives a blatant one-sided view. For context, beginning in 2017, Pres. Trump gutted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by rolling back over 100 environmental rules which affected, in part, The Clean Water Act of 1972. One provision required the EPA, along with the State of Missouri, to monitor the quality of lakes, rivers, streams, springs, wetland, and groundwater, and list the waterbodies that could be impaired by pollutants. In 2017, that stopped. The rollbacks all but eliminated the liability of Big Ag, industrial facilities, developers, miners, and wastewater treatment plants. Another fun fact - the administration also tried to eliminate the Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Federal Advisory Committee.
The article didn't mention that in 2017, the MO GOP representatives and senators didn’t say a word about how the rollbacks would adversely affect Missouri farmland and our food source. The article also didn't mention that Missouri was recently awarded $64,321,000 from Pres. Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure through this year’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund. It will support Missouri rural communities in upgrading essential water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure that protects public health and water bodies.
Another fact not mentioned in the article is Republicans spent 4 full years bragging about cutting every environmental and safety regulation, knowing that their multibillionaire and big bank donors were buying up water rights to eliminate regulations and landowners’ self-sufficiency. Pres. Biden is trying to put protections back in the hands of MO landowners that produce food for our table but the article only helped mega corporations stranglehold, and amplify the GOP deflection and fearmongering.
Jacqueline Farr
Chair
Benton County
Democratic Party
