by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
As appearing in the Daily Sentinel
The infamous Hatfield-McCoy family feud lasted from the Civil War through the trial of Johnse Hatfield in 1901, finally ending only by an old-fashioned public hanging in Pike County, Kentucky. More than a dozen family members and friends had been murdered, including a New Year’s Eve Massacre, and a pitched battle between two small armies at Grapevine Creek. In 2003 a “formal truce” was signed by 60 descendants of both families, settling it once and for all. Reo Hatfield said, “Sometimes you have to fight, but you don’t have to fight forever.” He ought to tell that to the politicians and lawyers battling over federal control of water for the last 50 years.
Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether to hear a case that provides — finally — a chance to clarify the definition of “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS). Western leaders, environmental activists, lawyers and landowners across the country have argued about “WOTUS” for decades. Yet the need for another definition is peculiar because Congress defined it clearly in the Clean Water Act of 1972, which created federal jurisdiction over “Navigable Waters of the United States.” I may be all alone, but I still refuse to use the term “WOTUS.” I call it “NWOTUS,” because that is what the law says.