EPA issues warning to Washington State over King Ranch case
It's an unusual move for an agency typically viewed as hostile to ranchers.
Breaking form for an agency often criticized by agriculture advocates as hostile to ranching, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is intervening on behalf of the King family’s ranch in Washington state.
The Kings were accused by state agencies of damaging so-called “alkali wetlands” in 2021. The family says the sites in question are not wetlands, but man-made stock watering ponds.
The Kings were fined and lost their grazing leases.
Now, the EPA is getting involved.
The EPA’s Region 10 office sent a letter to the Washington Department of Ecology (DOE) and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) expressing “grave concerns” over what it describes as “aggressive enforcement action” against the Kings.
The letter acknowledges the importance of stock ponds to livestock operations and asserts that states must not interfere with ranchers’ ability to produce food and earn a living.
“The King family, like most farmers and ranchers, maintain stock watering ponds on the land they own and lease to ensure their livestock have access to water,” writes regional EPA administrator Emma Pokon. “The EPA recognizes that stock watering ponds are important for supporting livestock operations. The State of Washington appears to be impeding cattle farmers’ ability to both earn a livelihood and participate in an important economic activity critical to supplying the nation’s food supply.”
Pokon warns the state to “stay within the appropriate jurisdictional bounds.”
The EPA is the second federal agency to intervene in the Kings’ case. In December, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) chief Brooke Rollins threatened to withhold federal funding to the state if what they described as “lawfare” against the family continues.
R-CALF USA, a ranching policy group, praised the EPA’s move.
“EPA’s warning reinforces the need for accountability when states administer federally overseen programs and sends a clear message that state agencies cannot stretch environmental authority beyond its limits to target private property and ranching families,” says Shad Sullivan, R-CALF’s property rights chair.
It’s high time these states are told to stay in their lane.
I hope this helps the ranchers and not entice the state to go after them even harder now because it’s become a political football. Time to put up netting and cover area’s so satellites can’t see dick.