SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) - Senator Mike Rounds questioned the legality of the Army Corps of Engineers implementing the Waters of the U.S. rule despite a nationwide stay set last October.
At an Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, Rounds said that when agricultural land is subject to the illegal implementation of a regulation, landowners lose the ability to properly manage their land.
Rounds says the implementation essentially prohibits farmers and ranchers from using the land they righfully own. He says there are multiple examples of the Army Corps using the WOTUS rule nearly to the point where the property loses its value.
Round says he doesn't think that "any of us disagree with the statute itself but he says the challenge is whether or not the implementation, within either the existing language of rules prior to the implementation of WOTUS, is appropriate.
Principal Attorney for Pacific Legal Foundation, Damien Schiff says the Constitution states that the government can't take property for public use without just compensation.