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Earlier CDFE Web

The EPA's New Form of Land
Seizure

Friend of
Free Enterprise:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
has the unfettered right to declare any piece of land ANYWHERE
(under the Clean Water Act) as a "wetlands." At the Obama Environmental
Protection Agency's discretion, they can take over your private property,
or tell you that you can't build your dream home on the land you bought
simply by designating it a "wetland." And so far, you cannot do anything
about it without spending far more than you paid for the property you are
about to build on. If you choose to fight the federal bureaucracy for
their takeover of your land, you --- or any landowner - can be assessed
prohibitive penalties to fight the abrogation of your right use your own
land.

The most frightening thing about the EPA's over-reach is
that they have found a way to exercise eminent domain in a way they never
have to buy they land they "seize." In a real twist, in fact, the owners
still has to keep up the taxes on the land --- even though they can never
use it!

It's just one more "government over-reach" by
the Obama Administration.

Please CLICK HERE to FAX every
Member of Congress to DEMAND a Congressional
Investigation of the EPA and their "out-of-the-ordinary" land
permit charges they are assessing to tax-paying American citizens. The
Obama EPA and the Obama Administration itself is out of control!. Today it
is the Sacketts who are being "sacked" by the EPA. Tomorrow, it could be
you, or a friend or family member. Once again the leftwing
environmentalists are fighting hard to push the American people back into
the urban centers of America. Help us protect the rights of Americans to
live where they want to live. Your GIFT to the CDFE Action
Fund will help us align support in Congress to end
discriminatory, punitive environment regulations and return America's
rural areas back to the American people.

A hard-working Idaho
couple found this out the hard way. Mike and Chantell Sackett own a
half-acre lot in a RESIDENTIAL area near Priest Lake in northern
Idaho. All they wanted to do was to build a home. Not an ostentatious
home. Just their dream home. The lot exists within a built-out area near
the Lake. The lot itself has an existing sewer hookup, and is zoned for
RESIDENTIAL construction.

Prior to their purchase of the land, the
Sacketts completed the normal round of due diligence inspections. None of
their research indicated any Clean Water Act permitting history or other
EPA requirements to use the property.

Yet, after the excavation
work was begun the EPA "swooped in" with a special "compliance order" that
required them to undo the excavation work and restore the "wetlands" to
their "pristine" condition. Worse yet, they were told by the federal
government they had to "leave it" for three years before they could seek a
"permit" which might cost an additional HUNDRED THOUSAND
DOLLARS! In other words, they could not build or even put up
a pup tent --- it had to be "untouched" as a designated "wetland."

Government over-reach in land usage has TENS OF
THOUSANDS of Americans "succumbing" to the wishes of the federal
government, WITHOUT any affordable recourse! In
recent years, the EPA has issued as many as 3,000 compliance orders PER
YEAR!

Please CLICK HERE to FAX every
Member of Congress to DEMAND a Congressional
Investigation of the EPA and their "out-of-the-ordinary" land
permit charges they are assessing to tax-paying American citizens. The
Obama EPA and the Obama Administration itself is out of control!. Today it
is the Sacketts who are being "sacked" by the EPA. Tomorrow, it could be
you, or a friend or family member. Once again the leftwing
environmentalists are fighting hard to push the American people back into
the urban centers of America. Help us protect the rights of Americans to
live where they want to live. Your GIFT to the CDFE Action
Fund will help us align support in Congress to end
discriminatory, punitive environment regulations and return America's
rural areas back to the American people.

What happened
to this Idaho couple can, and increasingly will, happen to other working
class people who buy land. This court case serves as a serious
WARNING to you, as a land owner, that the EPA can, whenever they
want, reach down from their lofty perch and take over control of your land
--- no matter where you are at. Mind you, you will still own it You will
still pay taxes on it. You just won't be able to build on it, or otherwise
use it.

The Sackett's life was put on "HOLD" for at least three
whole years --- without "due process." Chantell Sackett disappointingly
says: "They (the EPA) have stopped our life. I just think they're bullying
us. I think they do whatever they want."

Here's the kicker:
The Sackett's land has no standing water or any continuously flowing
water. It cannot, even in the mystical minds of the EPA, be construed as a
"wetland." Yet, the Sacketts were not granted "due process" to CHALLENGE
the EPA's "wetlands" assertion in court. A court, by the way, established
by the United States Constitution to protect the rights of the American
people.

Financially, the Sacketts are being assessed a horrific
price for the right to challenge the fed's power play. Their
constitutional rights are being outrightly VIOLATED. The 5th Amendment to
the United States Constitution says: "No person shall be . . . deprived of
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private
property be taken for public use without just compensation." While the EPA
will argue the Sacketts' land has not been taken, and that it still
belongs to them, the fact remains the Sacketts have been deprived of the
use of that land.

The Sacketts explain their "catch 22" dilemma in
their own words in this video. What is most frightening is that the people
in the video, below, could just as easily be you...

Help us to demand that the Sacketts have
their day in court --- now --- without spending hundreds of thousands of
dollars in fines and fees to be able to build their dream home before they
are too old --- or broke --- to enjoy it.

Please CLICK HERE to FAX every
Member of Congress to DEMAND a Congressional
Investigation of the EPA and their "out-of-the-ordinary" land
permit charges they are assessing to tax-paying American citizens. The
Obama EPA and the Obama Administration itself is out of control!. Today it
is the Sacketts who are being "sacked" by the EPA. Tomorrow, it could be
you, or a friend or family member. Once again the leftwing
environmentalists are fighting hard to push the American people back into
the urban centers of America. Help us protect the rights of Americans to
live where they want to live. Your GIFT to the CDFE Action
Fund will help us align support in Congress to end
discriminatory, punitive environment regulations and return America's
rural areas back to the American people.

The most overturned
court in the United States, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said
before the court could issue a ruling on the EPA's order; the family would
have to go through a years - long, $200,000 - plus process of formally
applying for a federal wetlands permit.

The EPA's compliance order
regime puts the Sacketts, and innocent landowners like them throughout the
country, in an impossible situation. Just to get their "day in
court," they must either run the risk of ruinous penalties and
imprisonment, or "purchase" their right of judicial review through the
permit process, even if the permit price is more than the value of the
land.

The Sacketts were provided no evidentiary hearing or
no opportunity to contest the order before it was arbitrarily put into
place.

A Writ of Certiorari has been submitted to the
court by Pacific Legal Foundation, an organization working on behalf of
the Sackett family. According to page 10 of the petition, "Ignoring the
compliance order is not an option for several reasons. First, the CWA
(Clean Water Act) imposes significant civil penalties for violating
compliance orders ($25,000 per day per violation. Just one month of
noncompliance puts the landowner at risk of civil liability of $750,000. A
year's worth of noncompliance puts the liability at $9,000,000..."

Please CLICK HERE to FAX every
Member of Congress to DEMAND a Congressional
Investigation of the EPA and their "out-of-the-ordinary" land
permit charges they are assessing to tax-paying American citizens. The
Obama EPA and the Obama Administration itself is out of control!. Today it
is the Sacketts who are being "sacked" by the EPA. Tomorrow, it could be
you, or a friend or family member. Once again the leftwing
environmentalists are fighting hard to push the American people back into
the urban centers of America. Help us protect the rights of Americans to
live where they want to live. Your GIFT to the CDFE Action
Fund will help us align support in Congress to end
discriminatory, punitive environment regulations and return America's
rural areas back to the American people.

Damien Schiff, lead
attorney in the case, states: "The reality of the Sackett's situation is
that they have been unambiguously commanded by their government not to
complete their home - building project, to take expensive measures to undo
the improvements that they have made to their land, and to maintain their
land essentially as a public park until the property is 'restored' to the
satisfaction of the EPA. They have been threatened with frightening
penalties if they do not immediately obey; but they have been refused the
prompt hearing they should have received as a matter of right in any
court."

My Friend, this could very easily happen to you.

Please CLICK HERE to FAX every
Member of Congress to DEMAND a Congressional
Investigation of the EPA and their "out-of-the-ordinary" land
permit charges they are assessing to tax-paying American citizens. The
Obama EPA and the Obama Administration itself is out of control!. Today it
is the Sacketts who are being "sacked" by the EPA. Tomorrow, it could be
you, or a friend or family member. Once again the leftwing
environmentalists are fighting hard to push the American people back into
the urban centers of America. Help us protect the rights of Americans to
live where they want to live. Your GIFT to the CDFE Action
Fund will help us align support in Congress to end
discriminatory, punitive environment regulations and return America's
rural areas back to the American people.

At issue in this,
what should be a "plain and simple" case, is the over-reach of the federal
government via the Obama EPA. This one case should be a "wake-up
call" to all property owners, and everyone who values fair play
and due process.

Let me ask you the bottom-line question: When
bureaucrats try to impose their will on private property, shouldn't the
owners be permitted their day in court to challenge the government's claim
of control?"

ABSOLUTELY.

I look forward
to your response to help "set the record and law straight" by calling for
a Congressional investigation into the federal over-reach by the EPA!

Sincerely,

Ron Arnold
Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise
Action Fund

P.S. Thank you for your attention as we help Americans
understand their rights on their own private property. Your financial
support to the CDFE Action Fund is crucial now, as we seek to make sure
that the U.S. Congress does not leave these good people "out in the EPA
cold."

Please CLICK HERE to FAX every
Member of Congress to DEMAND a Congressional
Investigation of the EPA and their "out-of-the-ordinary" land
permit charges they are assessing to tax-paying American citizens. The
Obama EPA and the Obama Administration itself is out of control!. Today it
is the Sacketts who are being "sacked" by the EPA. Tomorrow, it could be
you, or a friend or family member. Once again the leftwing
environmentalists are fighting hard to push the American people back into
the urban centers of America. Help us protect the rights of Americans to
live where they want to live. Your GIFT to the CDFE Action
Fund will help us align support in Congress to end
discriminatory, punitive environment regulations and return America's
rural areas back to the American people.

Or SEND your donation
to:
Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise Action Fund
Dept Code
- 5725
12500 NE 10th Place
Bellevue, WA 98005

Paid for by Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise
Action Fund.
A lobby organization Contributions are not tax
deductible.

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