In Beefola County, cattle ranchers argue that a new law designed to ra

Which of the following best completes the passage below?

In Beefola County, cattle ranchers argue that a new law designed to raise water quality should be abolished. The law requires ranchers to install fences that prevent livestock from entering waterways. Although they acknowledge that, without fences in place, the waterways would become more polluted in the short term, the ranchers argue that in the long term the increased pollution would be accompanied by higher profit margins. Higher profit margins would lead to more ranching entrepreneurs entering the market, which would in turn mean more tax funding for a water treatment facility that purifies contaminated water. Therefore, eliminating the requirement that ranchers fence their land would ultimately lead to cleaner water supplies. This argument cannot be true unless .


(A) all ranchers are taxed at the same rate

(B) the fenced ranches are upstream from the proposed new water treatment facility

(C) pollution levels in the waterways under consideration are already high

(D) an increase in the number of ranches does not reduce the overall revenue from cattle ranching in Beefola County by creating a rise in the supply of beef that drives beef prices down

(E) Beefola County can guarantee that all tax revenue received from cattle ranchers will be used to pay for the water treatment facility