BY GLEN COPE

Farmers are good at fixing things. Often on the farm, the pressures to complete tasks in a timely manner prompt farmers to come up with ingenious ways to accomplish something. Farmers pride themselves in being self-sufficient, self-reliant and able to tackle challenges that pop up more frequently than they’d like.

When farmers find something that works, they stick with it; they live by the mantra: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

This mindset is why farmers and ranchers are confused by and concerned with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator’s decision to change the rules used to implement the federal Clean Water Act. Passed in 1972, the Clean Water Act was intended to regulate only waters that are “navigable” throughout the United States.

EPA administrator Gina McCarthy has characterized the proposed changes as mere clarifications, but that’s hardly the case. Essentially, EPA is attempting to grant itself the authority to regulate all waters in the United States and features that are much more like land than water.

The EPA is designed to be guided by acts of Congress. In this case, though, Congress hasn’t expanded the Clean Water Act nor given the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) greater authority. Yet EPA is pushing to oversee any water that flows, sits or falls from the sky.

Earlier this year Administrator McCarthy came to Missouri and addressed a group of farmers about agricultural concerns over the new proposed regulation. She listened to farmers’ statements about the implications of the new rule affecting the Clean Water Act. Farmers understood they would be required to consult with and get permits from EPA and the Corps for the day-to-day operations of their farms. She called farmer concerns “ridiculous” and later implied landowners and farmers had nothing to fear from the proposed changes.

This led many in the agriculture community to wonder why the change was needed at all? If EPA’s intentions were not to regulate all water on the property of farmers and landowners, then why change it?

With the comment period closed now, we wait. We wait to see what the EPA does with the thousands of comments received from citizens (more than 7,000 from Missouri Farm Bureau alone). We wait to see if they’ll listen to Congressional leaders who have weighed in and told them “no.” We’ll wait to see if they’ll attempt to fix something that isn’t broken.

The fact of the matter is farmers have made great strides in improving the environment and ensuring water remains clean on their property. With the increased use of precision agriculture, farmers are applying just the right amount of nutrients to the ground based on soil tests. New technologies have ushered in steep declines in pesticide use. No-till planting continues to be a mainstay in how farmers get seed in the ground to reduce and in some cases eliminate soil erosion.

Are farmers and ranchers perfect? Of course not. They are, however, striving for perfection by embracing new and innovative technologies that improve production techniques and animal care while improving soil and water quality — an attitude that is not broken and that definitely does not need fixing.

Glen Cope, a fourth generation beef producer in southwest Missouri, is past chair of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee.