Property rights

[David S]

The following is from an article by Walter Williams that appeared in the Free Market news Network. Should Government have the power to do this?


 Mr. John A. Rapanos, a 68-year Michigan landowner faces a ten month federal imprisonment and up to $10 million in fines. Mr. Rapanos cleared and graded 200 acres of fallow farmland that he had owned since 1950 with the intention of constructing a shopping center. When the shopping center deal fell through, he leased the land to a local grain farmer. What was his crime?
Under the Clean Water Act, no person may discharge, dredge or put fill material into the navigable waters of the U.S. without a permit. The closest navigable waters to Mr. Rapanos' land is Saginaw Bay some 20 miles away. Mr. Rapanos' crime in the eyes of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was that he filled in depressions on his land without permission. According to his defense at the California-based Pacific Legal Foundation, "the Corps has argued that isolated pools and puddles were magically transformed into 'navigable waters', and subject to regulations, merely by the stopover of 'migratory' birds." With the Corps reasoning, you could go to jail if you had a tree stump ground out and filled the hole.


 

[A18]

This is one of the reason we need to bring state nullification back.

[Posterity]

No, the government should not have the power to do this.  I can understand certain restrictions that protect rivers, lakes, etc. from damaging actions, but that does not sound like it's applicable in this case.

I bet there is more to this story that explains the government's abuse of power.

[Brambila]

That's so ridiculously stupid.

[David S]

No, the government should not have the power to do this.  I can understand certain restrictions that protect rivers, lakes, etc. from damaging actions, but that does not sound like it's applicable in this case.

I bet there is more to this story that explains the government's abuse of power.

Unfortunately this story is not unique. Following are other examples of abuse by government agencies:

http://www.albrightseed.com/safe_harbor.htm

http://www.nationalcenter.org/ph18.html

http://realtytimes.com/rtcpages/19990902_clash.htm

http://www.fee.org/vnews.php?nid=213

[Dave from Michigan]

anyone ever read the book,  Mugged by the state
It's full of this kind of stuff.