In the last issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Tony Mecia wrote about a California farmer facing fines for planting wheat in a contested wetland (“Plowed Under,” August 21/August 28). The farmer has since settled with the Justice Department: John Duarte agreed to pay $1.1 million in fines and mitigation credits for having plowed through some shallow depressions on his land near a creek.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had been seeking penalties totaling at least $16 million in a case that started in 2013 under the Obama administration. Farming groups had watched the case closely, saying it exemplified the overreach of the regulatory state. They had hoped the regulation-skeptical Trump administration would drop the case, but it did not.
Duarte’s lawyer, Tony François, said the case called into question the “normal farming” protections under the Clean Water Act: “It creates a really ambiguous situation where farmers don’t know in advance what that protection applies to and what it doesn’t.”
Another takeaway from the case: “The government has shown it is fully prepared to throw massive potential liability at you if you challenge them.” No surprise there.
But what of these federal regulatory agencies? Is the new administration bringing them to heel? François would say only: “I have read the press releases and statements made during rallies.” That sounds like lawyer-speak for “no.”
