Surprise!
Like the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte at the famous 1815 battle of that name, Sen. John Thune and Rep. Kristi Noem realize that if they're defeated, it could be their end. So, they launch strikes against the federal Environmental Protection Agency every chance they get. In their assault on the proposal, Thune and Noem are backed by an army of agricultural lobbyists who are concerned that agricultural runoff -- from pesticides, fertilizers and the like -- might come under greater scrutiny. We wish our elected officials would take a common sense approach, realizing that everybody needs and wants clean water and that some kind of balance between regulation and freedom is best -- not rigidly protected immunity for politically important offenders. [editorial, OUR VIEW: Regulation might be costly, but so is polluted water]
The SDGOP-owned Department of Ecocide and Natural Ruination has come under the eye of another state enterprise:
A report [pdf] submitted by state officials to the EPA cites 166 lakes and streams in South Dakota as polluted or impaired. The bodies of water fail to meet government standards for clean water. Most of the polluted waters in South Dakota are due to non-point sources such as livestock waste. [Charles Michael Ray, Bill Janklow's idea of public radio]
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