Posted on 08/01/2005 8:47:02 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Air regulators said Monday that dairies are the number one source of smog-producing pollution in the San Joaquin Valley, producing more than even cars and light trucks.
In a much-disputed report released Monday, the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District determined that a cow annually emits 19.3 pounds of volatile organic compounds, the gases that contribute to smog. That's 50 percent more than currently thought.
At that new rate, dairies in the San Joaquin Valley produce more than 50 tons of VOCs a day, exceeding the amount released by cars and light trucks in the region by nearly 20 tons a day, district officials said.
The new emission factor will force up to 250 more dairies to apply for permits. Permitted dairies also will have to comply with regulations set to be announced next summer.
"Without a doubt, we have a legal and public health responsibility to move forward with (regulation)," said Dave Crow, the district's Air Pollution Control Officer. "This emissions factor provides us with some insight into what each of the processes on the dairy contribute."
The factor also stokes an ongoing debate among industry groups, environmentalists and scientists over how much of the valley's pollution should be blamed on one of its largest agricultural industries.
Several scientists involved in the research used to devise the new emission factor have criticized the report's finding. They take issue with the way district staff determined the amount of VOCs known as volatile fatty acids. The VFAs make up 15.5 of the 19.3 pounds of pollutants blamed on the cow.
"We've been cautioning them that a large component of their estimate is something for which there was very little California data," said Charles Krauter, a researcher at the California State University, Fresno.
The district relied on research conducted in Great Britain and a feedlot study from Texas for its VFA data.
Frank Mitloehner, an air quality specialist from the University of California, Davis who studies cow emissions, said he could not support the district's findings on VFAs.
"I think that it is very obvious there are very large knowledge gaps in this area," he said.
Air district officials said they saw no reason to make changes.
"We did consider their comments, but we did not make any changes based on their objections," said Rick McVeigh, the district's director of compliance.
Environmentalists called Mitloehner biased because he accepts funding from industry groups. They contend that the new emission factor doesn't reflect all the pollution created by dairies because it doesn't account for VOCs released by manure used as fertilizer, feed storage and other dairy processes.
"The number is a low-ball number," said Brent Newell, a lawyer for the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment, a group that has sued to force the industry to apply regulations. "I think in the future it will be revised and revised upwards, and it's incredibly important that the district has taken this step."
Michael Marsh, head of Western United Dairymen, said his group will ask the district's Governing Board to review Crow's findings.
"If they don't and our farmers are caught being forced to rely upon on an emission factor for regulation that's not based on science, we will, of course, review all our legal options," he said.
Jared Fernandes, a dairy farmer who milks 3,000 cows in Tulare, said he finds the district's report hard to believe.
"It a joke," he said. "Common sense tells me that I doubt cows are producing more than cars. Would you rather sit in your garage with your car running, or sit in a garage with a cow all night?"
Regulators say cows emissions cannot be directly compared to car emissions because they contain different types of VOCs.
Mitloehner's research found that those VOCs are released during the cow's natural rumination process, another reason dairy farmers feel they're being unfairly singled out.
"There is no technology, there's nothing we can do about it," Fernandes said. "Most of what's coming out is coming from the cow."
At that new rate, dairies in the San Joaquin Valley produce more than 50 tons of VOCs a day, exceeding the amount released by cars and light trucks in the region by nearly 20 tons a day, district officials said.
volatile organic compounds :}
Got VOC?
When are they going to control that bovine wind coming from the Air Regulators Board?
Soy milk, the hippy cure all
By the way, who got the job to sample the "air". Thought my job sucked
Good question. lol
You'll have to wade thru the manure ponds and do battle with the c'Rats in StinkyMento to answer that one, site of the mother load of BS.
The cattle were in California before the surfers and Hollyweird.
Triple the price of milk to the Enviro-Nazis.
Tell them you will dump the milk and sell them to McDonalds.
Let's see them try to slap on laws to stop you.
This is a PETA agenda scam.
Tell them where to stuff their Cattle-Lytic Converters.
Let them tax their cats and dogs.
Cattle do not run around urban areas dumping on sidewalks and neighbor's lawns.
That is a classic quote from a farmer at the end of the article that puts the whole thing in perspective.
"It a joke," he said. "Common sense tells me that I doubt cows are producing more than cars. Would you rather sit in your garage with your car running, or sit in a garage with a cow all night?"
There's a Hillary joke in there somewhere.
Will California force him to be fitted with a catalytic converter when he's in the state?
Seriously, this crap is just more goofy veganism/nature worship masquerading as science.
Enviro weenies are just pitiful in the way they keep coming up with this stuff.
I think I will invent a new smog control device that you can shove up a cow's a**. I will probably make a fortune!
More stupidity from the left. The majority of VOC's come from trees. Maybe they should consider logging all the trees of the Sierra Nevada's. That'll stop a lot of VOC's too.
Pretty soon they will outlaw people!!
Soon to see headline:
"To meet the new rules and regulations the dairy farmers have today raised prices 100% on all milk products."
Piper is not a mass polluter.
LOL, no, he is a very 'mini' polluter!
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