The Trump administration has taken formal steps to repeal an Obama-era “Waters of the United States” rule that threatened to unleash gross overreach by the Environmental Protection Agency.

President Donald Trump and like-minded critics of the rule saw the former regime’s “waters of the U.S.” as an attempt to subject farmers and legitimate business interests to costly and time-consuming EPA permitting requirements. The obnoxiously open-ended rule threatened to regulate everyday activities like moving soil or filling livestock watering holes. The overreach might even have extended to naturally occurring puddles or dry creek beds wherever they could be found.

If it were allowed to stand, the suspect EPA rule would have required farmers, ranchers and property developers to seek permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to make changes that might – only might – affect minor sources of water on their land. The permit process could have taken years and cost thousands of dollars, without any assurances from the federal bureaucrats that permission ever would be granted.

Read more at The Pueblo Chieftain.