(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the U-S Supreme Court has put the genie back in the bottle when it comes to the Clean Water Act. Grassley says the court’s decision on the E-P-A’s so-called Waters of the U.S. or “WOTUS” regulations has dramatically narrowed the agency’s authority to regulate wetlands and boggy areas.  “This is a great victory for farmers, even Chuck Grassley, who could have been threatened with thousands of dollars of fines if Biden’s WOTUS rules were to become law,” Grassley says.

Grassley and 46 other Republican senators filed a brief with the court a year ago, arguing the proposed E-P-A regulations went too far and violated the rights of property owners. Grassley says state officials should be the primary regulators of land and water resources within their borders.  “This decision clears up 50 years of confusion and puts a check on EPA’s mission creep,” Grassley says.

The governor, the state’s Ag Secretary and other Republicans in Iowa’s congressional delegation released written statements, praising the court’s decision. It restricts the E-P-A to regulating waterways and wetlands that have a continuous surface connection to lakes and rivers that can be navigated by boats. “A victory for farmers, builders, landowners, county supervisors so their ditches don’t have to be regulated,” Grassley says.

President Biden says the ruling upends the legal framework that has protected America’s waters for decades and it defies the science that confirms wetlands play a critical role in safeguarding our nation’s water resources from pollutants.