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When I started managing our family’s farm in 2000, I had big plans to keep us going strong in the 21st Century. My dad, who started the farm in 1953, worked his tail off growing corn, soybeans, wheat, and raising hogs. I saw a chance to expand, and while it’s been a long slog, today we farm over 1,900 acres.
But now I’m worried we can’t keep expanding because of the heavy hand of the federal government. It’s the most infuriating thing I’ve ever encountered.
The Biden administration rolled out its long-awaited "Waters of the United States" rule just before the new year, the latest version of the regulation that won’t die. It follows the Obama administration’s attempt to claim enormous federal power over land like mine, simply because a small amount of water sometimes runs over it, as water is known to do.
DROUGHT CONDITIONS TAKING A TOLL ON FARMERS' MENTAL HEALTH: 'FEEL LIKE YOU’RE A FAILURE'
The Trump administration went the other direction, giving my farm a break and me some hope. Yet in the name of "clean water," the Biden EPA is once again claiming control, the likes of which D.C. should never have over my property.
Even after three inches of rain on the July 4th weekend, the Hoffman farm doesn't qualify as a waterway. Unless the Biden administration is doing it.
Don’t get me wrong: As a farmer, I’m deeply committed to keeping my region’s water clean and our environment healthy. It does me no good if northeast Indiana becomes so polluted that I can’t grow crops or raise hogs. Unclean water is bad for business. That’s why every neighbor I have and farmer I know supports the Clean Water Act. But what I don’t support is twisting the law to the point that my property and my future are no longer my own.
I’m no lawyer, but when I read that the Clean Water Act gives D.C. power to regulate "navigable waters" it seems clear that we’re talking about, you know, waters you can navigate. Of course, that includes the Eel River, which some of my farm backs up to. But there’s no world in which anything else on my property fits the bill.
I have some drainage ditches that occasionally fill up with runoff from the fields or rain from big storms, but they’re not navigable unless we’re talking toy boats that fit in the palm of my hand. Ditto the wetlands that dot the farm, remnants of when this region was called the "Great Black Swamp." There’s no way to navigate them, and they don’t have an outlet. The water just seeps into the ground.
I’m now forced to ask myself if the EPA mandate applies to these areas, and the honest answer is: I don’t know. The rule is so tough to understand that simply figuring out what I can do with my property is beyond my capability.
What constitutes a "material influence" on bigger waters? What does it mean to "significantly affect" them? And what on earth is the "nexus standard"? The only way to get to the bottom of this is to hire expensive lawyers who can interpret every word, glance, and sneeze from D.C. bureaucrats, and then, if necessary, pay an expensive permit so I can actually use my land. I followed in my father’s footsteps to farm, not fight with the feds.
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I’m now considering delaying the expansion of our hog farming – plans that have been years in the making. I can’t tell if the property I was planning to use is now under the federal government’s thumb. It was going to be a decent-sized expense, but it seemed like we’d make it back in a couple of years. Now I don’t want to waste a lot of that money hiring experts to tell us what we can and can’t do.
Did the Biden administration know it might be shutting down farmers’ plans to make food more abundant and less expensive? Would it rather import more food instead of raising and making it here?
I don’t know the answer to these questions, either, and neither does anyone else. I worked with the National Federation of Independent Business to make my concerns known to the EPA, yet the agency refused to analyze the economic impact of its mandate on small businesses before issuing it, which federal law requires.
I’m no lawyer, but when I read that the Clean Water Act gives D.C. power to regulate "navigable waters" it seems clear that we’re talking about, you know, waters you can navigate.
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It looks to me like the Biden administration wanted more control of my land at any cost. And what a cost it will be, when you factor in the similar decisions that my fellow farmers and ranchers are making nationwide.
I’ll keep farming my land to the best of my ability, and within the bounds of an overly aggressive government. But I hope someone will soon give me and all those in my position relief and clarity. Maybe that’s Congress. Maybe it’s the courts. And it may even be the next presidential administration. I don’t care who. All I want is to be free to grow what my father first planted, 70 years ago.
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