EDITORIAL: EPA overreach is pond scam

The EPA has validated Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt's decision to sue the agency over its never-ending pursuit of expanded power at the expense of states and private property rights.

On Thursday, a federal judge blocked the Environmental Protection Agency's attempt to control even more U.S. waters under the Clean Water Act and effectively eliminate state and local regulatory authority over washes, creeks and anywhere that gets wet when it rains. Mr. Laxalt was mocked in some circles for joining other states in filing the lawsuit, for warning that the new restrictions would cause economic harm. But this case wasn't partisan piling on. Judge Ralph Erickson of North Dakota ruled that the proposed EPA regulation exceeded the agency's authority under the Clean Water Act and would cause states to "lose their sovereignty over intrastate waters."

In fact, the loss of sovereignty was already well underway before Thursday's ruling — and before the EPA announced Friday that it would proceed with enforcement of the regulation in the 37 states that didn't join Mr. Laxalt in challenging the regulation, an obviously unconstitutional move that subjects different states to different standards.

Last week, Wyoming farmer Andy Johnson filed his own lawsuit against the EPA, an action that reminds Nevadans why Mr. Laxalt chose to fight the agency and provides a lesson in how heavy-handed environmental regulators can destroy the livelihoods of average Americans.

Mr. Johnson faces $16 million in fines for building a stock pond for the horses and cattle on his 8 acres of land. He obtained all required local and state permits to build the pond, but because it's fed by a stream that flows into the Green River, the EPA declared that he needed a federal permit as well. Last year, the agency ordered Mr. Johnson to dismantle the pond and the small earthen dam that bolsters it and restore the area to its original condition or accumulate $37,500 per day in fines.

The EPA issued the order even though the Clean Water Act specifically exempts stock ponds, and even though testing showed the creek water that flows downstream from Mr. Johnson's pond is cleaner than the water that flows into it; the pond gives sediment a place to settle. The agency declared the sand, gravel, clay and concrete blocks used to create the pond "pollutants."

So the same agency that just spilled millions of gallons of toxic wastewater into an actual waterway (with no consequences to the EPA) is fining a law-abiding citizen who purifies creek water that passes through his property the equivalent of his annual household income every couple of days.

The EPA's primary mission is not protecting the environment, but rather exercising and expanding the agency's power, to the detriment of the taxpayers who fund it. Thanks to Mr. Laxalt for doing his part to protect Nevada from more EPA overreach.