A California farm family has the support of the American Farm Bureau Federation in a suit filed this week against the Environmental Protection Agency over EPA's authority on water regulations.  The suit claims EPA overstepped its authority when it interfered with the family's right to harvest timber from their land.

Guido and Betty Pronsolino own the Copper Queen Ranch in Mendocino County, CA.  Last September they obtained a permit from the California Department of Forestry to harvest 1.5 million board feet of timber from the property over 15 years.

But EPA had restricted the amount of sediment runoff into the Garcia River from timber harvesting and certain ag activities in the Garcia River watershed.  EPA's actions required the Pronsolinos to inventory and control sediment loading on their property, restricts them from harvesting any land during six and a half months of the year and prevents them from constructing or using roads and skid trails in certain areas, "all resulting in significant losses," according to the suit.

"The imposition of the same old regulatory bureaucracy, as seen in this case, violates the law and simply does not fit in today's world," said AFBF President Dean Kleckner.  Costly federal regulations such as those being challenged in the suit, not only are unauthorized but "are pummeling America's farmers and ranchers at a time they can least afford it."