Juvenile Office Getting Restructured

By Bill Lant

Columnist

I was in Jefferson City Aug. 17-18 for my monthly Child Abuse and Neglect Joint Committee hearing.

On Aug. 17, I met with the juvenile officers, the director of Division of Children's Service, the director of Missouri Kids First, and the Office of State Courts Administration.

The purpose for the meetings was to solicit their advice and suggestions about how to deal with the recent ruling by the Department of Justice that found that the current structure of the Juvenile Office lends itself to conflict of interest.

We have suspected for a while that this ruling was coming, and for this reason we have directed the efforts of the committee to developing a plan to restructure the Juvenile Office in a way that resolves this problem.

Our intention from the beginning was to solve the problem while changing as little as possible about the way the office works.

Missouri has been a leader in dealing with abuse and neglect, and we certainly don't want to make changes that would hinder future efforts.

My approach to the challenge is to involve every stakeholder in making plans to correct the problem.

Naturally, no one really likes change, especially when it may affect them personally. The Juvenile Officers Association has risen to the occasion.

They have spent several months working on a set of standards to be applied statewide that will correct most of the problems without going through the lengthy process of legislation.

Every Division has helped them formulate the best plan to correct the problems and by working out their differences as they go, the effort has been much smoother than I would have ever imagined.

Now, that is not to say that there won't be some differences of opinion before we are finished in December or January, but every problem is solvable if we continue to work together.

Aug. 20 I went to Sedalia for the governor's breakfast at the state fair. The breakfast wasn't nearly as good as Cooper's in Anderson, but the information we received later in the day was certainly an eye-opener.

We were invited to a presentation on the new EPA rulings on the "Waters of the U.S."

In case you were unaware, the EPA rulings are not debated or voted upon by Congress.

The only thing Congress can possibly do to forestall their rulings is refuse to fund the implementation of the rule.

The main concern that we need to have is the re-definition of the waters of the U.S. under the Clean Water Act.

The new regulations will modify rules that have been in place for more than 25 years regarding which waters fall under federal jurisdiction.

The proposed rule change greatly increases the amount of acreage controlled by the EPA.

Originally, the waters of the U.S. designation was derived from the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 and identified waters that were "navigable" and were involved in interstate commerce.

Since that time, the courts have dealt with many cases both with the regulatory agencies and the regulated community. Naturally, over the years, this has led to a lot of confusion.

Under the guise of "simplification," the new rule broadens the geographic scope of the EPA to include navigable waters, interstate waters, territorial waters, tributaries (ditches), wetlands, and other waters.

To make that simple, any lake, pond, ditch, waterway, swale, or any pasture or cultivated field that has run off into any of the aforementioned WILL be under the control of the federal government.

The Missouri Farm Bureau estimates that 97.3 percent of the U.S. falls into this category.

If rain falls and runs off a building within 4,000 feet of any of these controlled areas, you would be responsible to the feds.

A permit will be required for digging a ditch, building a fence, cutting a drain line, building a pond, spraying weed killer, applying insecticide, or directing a downspout from your house -- just to name a few things.

The EPA has established a fine for non-compliance of the regulations of $37,500 per day and retroactive up to five years!

You just can't make this stuff up!

Sen. Blunt addressed a group of legislators and farmers and ranchers after the presentation.

He assured us that they would not fund this new regulation but we all know how these things keep coming back time after time.

You can find more information at the National Association of Counties Website at www.naco.org/wous.

There is a wealth of information available on the Internet about this subject, and we should all become educated on it's potential impact on our lives.

More next week. Until then I am and remain in your service.

State Rep. Bill Lant may be reached by calling 417-437-8223 or 573-751-9801, or email [email protected].

Editorial on 08/27/2015