PCA praises action on WOTUS rule

The Portland Cement Association has praised a bipartisan group of lawmakers who have introduced "The Federal Water Quality Protection Act of 2015". This legislation is designed to rein in a proposed US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule that would significantly increase federal jurisdiction over the nation's waterways.

Quarrying industries would be especially affected by the proposed Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rules, which PCA has called ‘ambiguous’.

"The proposed EPA rule radically changes the definition of what water features would be subject to regulation," said James G. Toscas, President and CEO of the PCA.  "It is so ambiguous that it could include something as minor as a temporary pool of water that forms after a rainstorm, with determinations made on a case-by-case basis. We take environmental compliance very seriously, and this vague and arbitrary approach would make compliance difficult. Most importantly, for all its massive scale, complexity, and uncertainty, the proposed EPA rule would carry very little benefit for the environment. It's regulation for the sake of regulation."

"This bipartisan group of senators deserves a lot of credit for standing up to EPA's regulatory overreach in order to keep the states involved in regulating our nation's waterways," said Toscas. "The legislation they introduced would maintain balanced state and federal roles in protecting the environment." 

Adapted from press release by Katherine Guenioui

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/the-americas/06052015/pca-praises-action-on-wotus-rule-789/