WOTUS: court compels cult to continue conservation

A religious cult notorious for decimating watersheds has been ordered to restore riparian habitat.

This week U.S. District Court Judge Karen E. Schreier issued an order requiring the Mayfield Hutterite Colony to restore federally-protected wetlands it drained in 2011. In November 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service discovered that Mayfield Colony had installed drain tile to drain four wetlands in Hamlin County that were protected by a permanent wetland easement owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service filed suit against the Colony in 2014, seeking the removal of the drain tile from the wetlands and a permanent injunction preventing further drainage of the wetlands. The Colony also agreed to be permanently enjoined from draining or permitting the draining of the wetlands in the future.

Read the rest here.

Aquifer sources are not considered high quality water for irrigation but fossil water from limestone contains the minerals that made us human. Note the huge number of Hutterite communities applying for permits awaiting approval at South Dakota's Department of Ecocide and Natural Ruination to pump dwindling aquifers.

I really don’t care what happens East River because it’s already destroyed but West River can still be rewilded and preserved. I want to see money for West River land owners who would put their ground back into native grasses be exempt from taxes and leased as wildlife corridors. I want to see domestic livestock confined to internment camps East River where Hutterites will ultimately control all the ag ground there.