PERMIT Act Looks To Bring Clarity, Consistency To Clean Water Act

Last week, the House passed the Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today Act, better known as the PERMIT Act, as an effort to streamline permitting under the Clean Water Act and ease the regulatory burden on agriculture.  Supporters of the PERMIT Act, which passed on a 221-205 vote, say the legislation takes aim at overregulation of waters of the U.S., making it easier to farm or build infrastructure.

“During the Biden Administration, expansive WOTUS interpretations treated dry washes and ephemeral streams as navigable waters, piling up permits that crippled ranchers and farmers,” said Arizona Republican Andy Biggs.

Biggs offered an amendment approved by voice vote to double the time now allowed for land hit by drought to be out of production.

“Under the current five-year window, pauses that ranchers and farmers might take can often revert to wetlands, triggering EPA oversight that locks out grazing," he said.  "My amendment protects these parcels so they can return to production when conditions improve, without fear of federal reclamation."

Democrats argued a ten-year window would upend a post-1985 Clean Water Act exemption for prior-converted cropland, adding more uncertainty after the Supreme Court better defined a WOTUS.  Biggs insisted long-running droughts and high beef prices were reason enough to ease EPA permitting.

The PERMIT Act exempts farmland from federal permits for stormwater discharges into navigable waters, with federal and state exemptions for pesticide discharges.

The Fertilizer Institute praised the House of Representatives for passing the PERMIT Act.

"Permitting reform is essential to strengthening America’s fertilizer supply chain,” said TFI President and CEO Corey Rosenbusch. “For new phosphate and potash mining projects to nitrogen production and modern distribution facilities, today’s permitting process is too often defined by years’-long delays and significant uncertainty.”

He added that the PERMIT Act provides the guardrails needed to keep critical projects moving while maintaining protections for water quality and natural resources. TFI members routinely face permitting delays for new and expanded fertilizer production operations that stretch into decades and cost tens of millions of dollars. The delay impacts the farmers who rely on a stable, affordable, and abundant supply of fertilizer.

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