• Farmer Faces $2.8M Fine for Plowing Field

    From California Democrat Idiocy@21:1/5 to All on Fri May 26 06:19:05 2017
    XPost: alt.california, sac.politics, alt.politics.republicans
    XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh

    (NEWSER) – California farmer John Duarte could be facing a $2.8
    million fine—and may be ordered to pay millions more in wetlands
    mitigation—for an offense he describes thusly: "Planting wheat
    in a wheat field," something he says had been done many times
    previously. Duarte has been fighting legal battles since 2012,
    when he hired someone to plow 450 acres of land he had purchased
    near Red Bluff in central California, USA Today reports. Because
    the area included wetlands, the US Army Corps of Engineers
    ordered work to stop and sued Duarte for failing to obtain a
    permit and for allegedly carrying out "deep ripping" that went
    as far as 3 feet down, disturbing waters considered to be
    "waters of the United States" under federal regulations.

    A Pacific Legal Foundation lawyer says this is the first case he
    knows of where a farmer had to get a permit from the Army Corps
    of Engineers to grow crops. "We're not going to produce much
    food under those kinds of regulations," he says. Federal
    prosecutors say Duarte violated the Clean Water Act because his
    activities deposited dirt into wetland streams. The case is
    scheduled to go to trial in August, though Duarte says the Trump
    administration has made it clear it considers the rule involved
    to be "dead," the Modesto Bee reports. He says unless the case
    is dropped, he will take it to the highest court possible to
    make sure other farmers aren't "shaken down by government
    agencies."

    http://www.newser.com/story/243288/farmer-faces-28m-fine-for- plowing-field.html

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