I am here because of the outcry from my state in response to the EPA's August 1999 proposal to expand the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting programs. I believe it is the intent of the EPA to treat traditional agriculture and forestry activities as potential point source polluters. I also believe this is a deliberate attempt to circumvent the Clean Water Act and legislate through regulation -- directly contradicting Congress' intent when it debated and passed legislation on non-point source pollution.
I remember participating in this debate when I served in the House and recall specifically that states would be granted the ability to define and enforce this matter, absent the intrusion of the EPA. That's why we have a Congressional Record -- to remember what was said years ago. I recommend the EPA crack open it's copy of the Congressional Record before launching its next overriding initiative.
Mr. Chairman, farmers, foresters, private landowners, and community leaders across Arkansas are deeply worried that requiring states to enforce stricter TMDL standards will stretch state, local and private resources to the breaking point. In January, I spoke at a public meeting in El Dorado, Arkansas, which drew 1,500 concerned citizens. Weeks later, a meeting in Texarkana, Arkansas, attracted 3,000 landowners. Last week, I spoke to a crowd of 3,300 in Fayetteville, Arkansas -- numbers that Senator Lincoln can confirm as true. She, too, was there.
This unprecedented public turn-out begs the question as to who is driving this policy. It is clear that implementing the EPA's new proposal will only divert already limited funds and resources away from successful state implementation programs and hand them over to bureaucratic federal procedures and oversight.
While testifying before the House Appropriations Committee, Administrator Browner said she felt the EPA was forced to act in response to lawsuits brought by environmental groups, like the Sierra Club, who were dissatisfied with the Agency's lack of enforcement at the state level. The fact that special interest groups are driving federal policy by intimidating states and the EPA with litigation runs completely contrary to how I believe our government should be run. It is not democratic and it is not fair to Arkansans who work hard to manage their land.