Last week, I listened to a story on NPR regarding wetlands issues on private property in Louisiana. The story dealt with logging, but was directly related to the CoEs definition of waters of the US and navigatable waterways. I emailed Senator Vitter (R-LA), but have yet to receive a response. Maybe it is slow since I do not reside in LA. I was waiting to post until I had more information, but Jersey's post and the thread made me change my mind. If someone can get more information to post that would be great and I will post when I have more info.
Basically, Senator Vitter is on the side of loggers wanting to log in flooded areas. The lands are private and not accessible to anyone, but the landowners, yet the CoE considers the shallow water to be waters of the US. He has introduced legislation to change the CoEs definition and to better restrict what the CoE considers to be navigable and waters of the US.
When I heard the story, I thought this may be the type of legislaion to reign in the Coe we all would appreciate and we need to get the internet bus going to support it and find co-sponsors in each of our states. I am hoping that this legislation will re-define what role the CoE can play in our small (on the scale of things)pond building ventures. Anyone have more info? I will post more when I hear from Vitter's office.
John
