The following statement is attributed to Don Shawcroft, president of the Colorado Farm Bureau:

“Water is the lifeblood of agriculture’s success. Protecting our waterways and drinking water is vital to the future of farms and ranches in Colorado and across the country. That is why it is so important to have an updated EPA clean water rule. This new rule recognizes states’ ability to manage their most precious natural resource, water.

Coloradans know how to manage their land and resources better than regulators in Washington D.C. The new, common-sense rule will not only protect our nation’s water resources but also restore faith in the effective management of water by the states, allowing land use decisions to be made locally.

The 2015 rule was a broad overreach that would have placed non-navigable, drylands under the authority of the federal government. The rule left farmers and ranchers across the country uncertain about which lands and waters were subject to federal authority and which ones were not. This limited their ability to manage their own resources and make land use decisions.

Clean water is personal for me and my family’s ranch, as well as for farm and ranch families everywhere. The new rule from the EPA empowers each and every one of us to protect our water resources while allowing farmers and ranchers to do what they do best, work their land.”