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EDITORIAL: EPA runoff policy all wet

A larger, more powerful federal government hits taxpayers from all sides. In addition to income tax withholding, Washington increasingly imposes costs on state and local governments that create pressure for even more tax increases. Case in point: the creation of an entirely new state division to appease an overreaching federal bureaucracy.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which considers every puddle a waterway and the dirt that surrounds each puddle wetlands, has been after the Nevada Department of Transportation for years over storm water runoff. Because roads are filthy and can contribute to erosion if they’re near lakes and rivers, the EPA insists that states take steps to prevent polution and sediment from pouring into watersheds.

The obvious conflict here is that highway runoff happens by design; flooded roads are unsafe to travel and sustain costly damage.

No matter. The EPA was especially concerned with runoff from highway maintenance facilities and parking lots. And if the state ignores the EPA, Washington could hit Nevada with tens of millions of dollars in penalties.

The state’s solution: A new NDOT Environmental Division, with 68 employees and a $10 million budget. Fifty-one positions are new and 17 vacant department positions will be reassigned.

“When all is said and done,” NDOT Deputy Director Bill Hoffman said, “we will have to go out and GPS every single pipe, culvert, anything, maybe 50,000 statewide, and put them into a database.” Then all 50,000 entries will have to be assessed to keep potential pollutants out of waterways.

Talk about an expensive make-work boondoggle. The funding for the new division comes at the expense of highway construction and maintenance, mental health services, teaching positions or, heaven forbid, a slightly smaller tax increase to fund Gov. Brian Sandoval’s $7.4 billion budget.

This new bureaucracy should inspire the Republican Congress to add a policy priority to its to-do list: clarify and rein in the scope of the Clean Water Act. Rain happens.

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