Wyoming welder Andy Johnson built a pond on his farm so he and his family could enjoy fishing, swiming, and watching the ducks and geese. Instead, the results of creating the pond have been frightening – and expensive. Johnson says he was harangued by the Environmental Protection Agency, including threats of civil and criminal penalties which could amount to $75,000 per day.
“I have not paid them a dime nor will I,” a defiant Johnson told FoxNews.com. “I will go bankrupt if I have to fighting it. My wife and I built [the pond] together. We put our blood, sweat and tears into it. It was our dream.”But Johnson may be in for a rude awakening.
The government says he violated the Clean Water Act by building a dam on a creek without a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. Further, the EPA claims that material from his pond is being discharged into other waterways. Johnson says he built a stock pond — a man-made pond meant to attract wildlife — which is exempt from Clean Water Act regulations.
The property owner says he followed the state rules for a stock pond when he built it in 2012 and has an April 4-dated letter from the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office to prove it.
“Said permit is in good standing and is entitled to be exercised exactly as permitted,” the state agency letter to Johnson said.
But the EPA isn’t backing down and argues they have final say over the issue. They also say Johnson needs to restore the land or face the fines.
Johnson plans to fight. “This goes a lot further than a pond,” he said. “It’s about a person’s rights. I have three little kids. I am not going to roll over and let [the government] tell me what I can do on my land. I followed the rules.”
Johnson says he was “bombarded by hopelessness” when he first received the administrative order from the EPA. He then turned to state lawmakers who fast-tracked his pleas to Wyoming’s two U.S. senators, John Barrasso and Mike Enzi, and Louisiana Sen. David Vitter.
The Republican lawmakers sent a March 12 letter to Nancy Stoner, the EPA’s acting assistant administration for water, saying they were “troubled” by Johnson’s case and demanding the EPA withdraw the compliance order.
“Rather than a sober administration of the Clean Water Act, the Compliance Order reads like a draconian edict of a heavy-handed bureaucracy,” the letter states.
Source: FoxNews
I don’t know all the details of this case , but it has always been understood that if the water originates from off your land you must allow it to flow off your land . You can build a pond fed by it , but you can not dam it up and stop its flow . And I think that I read somewhere that it was a creek .
How can they fight it?
Why does Fox news twist everything?
this is so wrong.. they need to worry more about what Duke power is doing to the navigable waterways in NC…
I think it’s terrible that a person can’t do what they want with a piece of property they have bought and paid for, (within the law) we don’t need to loose any more of our rights. But is it to late, have we already lost them? Does Mr. Obama own the E.P.A.? Was this his law? Here is a statement from Republican congressman TREY GOWDY of S.C. “We don’t pass suggestions, we don’t pass ideas. We pass laws, and we expect them to be faithfully executed (by the President.)So if they except this from the President, I would assume they expect it from everyone. If this is a law we are talking about here, I also assume that the law is for everybody. It does not exclude Mr. Johnson, his wife, or his little children so sorrowfully mentioned by Fox News or whoever wrote this article. I really wish him all the best and would like to see him win this case. However, I just can’t see it happening. I couldn’t help but notice that Fox News, (the news of twisted words) was involved in this story.The head line reads,”Obama’s EPA FINES WELDER $75,000./DAY FOR BUILDING A POND ON HIS LAND” Maybe FOX NEWS could clear this up just a little. First, does Obama own the EPA? Next, did he have this law passed? And what does Mr. Johnson being a welder have to do with anything? Are the laws different for a welder? Or are they saying that he being a welder, was not smart enough to know better? I don’t get it. Did the EPA call Mr. Obama to ask how much to fine Mr. Johnson? Did he drop everything he was doing to discuss this incident with the EPA? OR should he have dropped everything he was doing to discuss this matter with the EPA? Was it so important a matter that he should have dropped all that he was doing to tell the EPA how they should handle this matter? Does the EPA not have a department head? Obama probably doesn’t go to bed every night wondering who is building a fish pound somewhere in the backwoods. According to the headline, it sounds as if the EPA that Mr. Obama owns has already fined Mr. Johnson $75,000.00 a day for building this pond. BUT, later in the article they say, “INCLUDING THREATS OF CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PENALTIES WHICH COULD AMOUNT TO $75,000.00 PER DAY. Key word, (COULD) I would have thought Fox News would have known the difference. THE WORD ‘HARANGUED’ MEANS…A LENGTHY AND AGGRESSIVE SPEECH/LECTURE TO SOMEONE IN AN AGGRESSIVE AND CRITICAL MANNER. A WORD NOT USED VERY OFTEN. HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RULES OR LAWS.
From what I have been able to find out about Truth and Action is that it seems to be another Republican based news letter founded by Dr. James Kennedy, a confused Presbyterian minister who preached Republican religion so it seems. We know that we are in trouble when the churches start to back the people who lie and spread propaganda so freely as the GOP.