Crapo: 'Just a power grab over water'

COEUR d'ALENE - Idaho's senior Sen. Mike Crapo said Friday that he will pursue action to overturn the new water rules that went into effect this week.

"I am completely opposed to the new rules," Crapo said in an interview Friday. "This is nothing more than a power grab over water."

Crapo said the Environmental Protection Agency's new "Waters of the U.S." rules essentially expand EPA's and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineer's regulatory authority to include all waters in the U.S., not just the navigable waters of the U.S., which is all they had the authority over before the new rules were issued.

The senator said the EPA could now regulate the standing water in drainage ditches and marsh lands.

About a decade ago, Crapo said, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the EPA's regulatory authority to navigable waters, which are waters that provide a channel for commerce and transportation of people and goods. That authority was granted to federal agencies under the Clean Water Act.

"They are now defining navigable waters so broadly that the term applies to all waters of the United States," he said, adding states historically have controlled the non-navigable waters within their borders.

Crapo, who sits on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, is co-sponsoring a bill that would force the administration to eliminate the new rules.

"It requires EPA to rescind the rules and go back to managing the waters they were given the authority to regulate under the Clean Water Act," he said, acknowledging that it will be difficult to get past the president's veto pen.

"I think we would have the votes to pass it in the House," he said. "We might even get the votes in the Senate."

Crapo said the issue isn't really partisan because it will impact everyone's water bodies, so that could make it easier to garner the votes he needs to pass the bill.