To the editor:

I would like to address Sen. Ernst’s letter in the Sentinel-News on March 23, 2023. There needs to be some clarification on the WOTUS she was addressing. It stands for Waters of the United States. It is designed to control the quality of water in rivers and lakes from pollution. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. The term “Waters of the U.S.’’ appears in the Federal Clean Water Act of 1972 that empowers the EPA and the Army Corp of Engineers with protecting those waters.

This act has kept 700 billion pounds of pollution out of our water annually, has slowe...