Washington, DC is once again out to show you that it knows better than you do as to how to manage your own property.

A new bill entitled The Clean Water Restoration Act seeks to remove the word “navigable” from the list of water types that it has control over. In effect, if a farm or lot has mudflats, puddles, or standing water of any kind, that land now would come under the direct authority and control of the Corps Of Engineers and the EPA. Read the entire article at Fox News.

Private property – and the ability to acquire, keep, or sell private property – is at the heart of our entire economic and social system. Our Founding Fathers linked private property ownership with the right to vote. To own land – to build and own a home – is still the American dream. Yet another bill is threatening to take that away – again.

Remember Pfizer Corporation in New London, Connecticut? They successfully convinced the town council to strip property owners of their rights – seize their land or pay chump change on the dollar – so that the drug company could build a new building complex. The Supreme Court – in an act of lunacy – held that such seizure is appropriate under the Eminent Domain Clause. So, businesses lost their buildings and people lost their homes.

Pfizer has now announced that it is moving away from New London, taking 1400 jobs with them. The empty building – and ruined lives – they will leave behind. Read the entire article at the New York Times.

One supporter of the Clean Water Restoration Act states – “There are a number of very generous exemptions in there particularly for ranchers and farmers…” How kind – generous exemptions for one’s own land.

What then do we do about pollutants in the environment? Not by more government control, but by less. Private property – and the protection of it – puts an “enlighted self-interest” into play. In other words – we don’t want that on our land. We want our land, our home, our water to be as clean and healthy as possible. If we achieve it on our own place, but are threatened by neighbors – then we take those neighbors to court – either in a civilian tort of recklessness or a criminal court for endangerment. The punishments would range from orders to clean up, to fines, to sale of land. Not loss of land – but sale of land to another individual who would then take over proper management of the property. Notice how the government does not get one square inch out of the deal.

Fortunately this bill does not seem to be getting a lot of traction in the Senate, although it did get out of committee fairly easily. Keep an eye on it – because this bill is not about clean water, or pollutant free air – but about controlling private property rights.