Posted on 03/01/2009 1:18:14 PM PST by patriotmediaa
EPA says farmers must keep dust down
DES MOINES — Nothing says summer in Iowa like a cloud of dust behind a combine.
But what may be a fact of life for farmers is a cause for concern to federal regulators, who are refusing to exempt growers from new environmental regulations.
It's left some farmers feeling bemused and more than a little frustrated.
"It's such a non-commonsense idea that you can keep dust within a property line when the wind blows," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee who still farms in New Hartford.
Under rules imposed in 2006, rural areas would be kept to the same standards as urban areas for what the Environmental Protection Agency calls "coarse particulate matter" in the air.
The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Pork Producers Council had petitioned the government to provide an exemption to farmers. They argued that evidence of harm caused by dust in rural areas has not been determined.
But the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington ruled Tuesday that the EPA already had provided the evidence necessary to determine farm dust "likely is not safe."
Michael Formica, a lawyer for the pork council, said this means farmers face the daunting task of having to prove that the dust is not harmful.
Formica said his and other groups will consider a further appeal.
Farmers said they will be hard-pressed to meet the standards.
In a letter sent Wednesday to the EPA, Grassley wrote that compliance would be impossible because of the dust produced in farmers' day-to-day activities.
"After all, God decides when the wind blows, not Chuck Grassley," he said.
But the EPA said the regulation was overdue.
Every five years, the Clean Air Act requires the agency to review the newest scientific information and recommend changes to its standards.
In 2006, the EPA determined larger particles in the air than previously thought were a danger to the public. The increased threshold covered air mixes that occur in rural areas.
EPA spokeswoman Cathy Milbourn said the changes are not just a matter of regulating dust. They serve the public's well-being and, regardless of whether someone lives in a rural or urban area, the threshold for unsafe levels of dust in the air must remain consistent nationally.
"It's health-based," she said. "We don't look at a particular industry. The goal is to protect public health."
When counties reach "non-attainment" levels, it becomes a state's responsibility to bring the county back into acceptable levels.
Milbourn said various options exist for states, such as retrofitting buses that run on diesel engines.
But farmers insist the regulation will affect their operations and eventually their bottom lines. And they said unlike fixing a bus, they have few options for limiting dust from their fields and roads.
Roger Zylstra, a Lynnville farmer and director with the Iowa Corn Growers Association, said if left alone, farmers can compete worldwide. But regulation could impede their success.
"We think we've met the demands that have been put upon us and lo and behold, we have new and even more stringent demands," Zylstra said. "It seems really unrealistic."
I realize he's on the farmer's side, but he ought to see if someone in Congress is interested in that name.
My favorite old bumper sticker.
“Milbourn said various options exist for states, such as retrofitting buses that run on diesel engines.”
Pray tell..what do buses have to do with farming?
This woman sounds like an idiot!
You are correct, sir. Iowa used to understand very well the relationship between sowing and reaping, but it is time to re-learn.
Mr. niteowl77
Go to West Tex. where it rains mud sometimes.
So now Obama is threatening the national food supply on ideological grounds.
Lets see:
1) No Banks
2) No fuel
3) No guns
4) No ammo
5) No food
6) No stock market
7) No bank sponsors for golf
8) No conservative radio
If he adds “no beer”, I see no reason to continue to live anywhere but in Costa Rica.
I remember Mel Gibson's character in The Patriot speaking in the Virgina Legislature:
"Why should I exchange one tyrant three thousand miles away for three thousand tyrants one mile away?"
Ack- should read ‘Virginia’.
Double ack— South Carolina.
(blush)
Ah yes the EPA, yet another government agency built on good intentions and probably did good work the first few years.
Now they are rogue and needs to be shut down.
I’m on the CA central coast and my veggie garden still has many many green onions thriving, which means they CAN be grown here in the winter. But at Safeway they’re selling little bunches of green onions with about six per bundle for 99cents. That’s more than a dollar per onion. And there’s a large-ish sign that proclaims them to be “Product of Mexico.”
Arrgghh.
EnviroWhackos have been just as anti-agriculture as they are anti-ranching.
Not only “meat is murder” with these extremists....but “agriculture is murder”
Environmental extremism pretty much wiped out a lot of agriculture in the part of Florida I live in.
Enviromentalism kills more people than pollution ever will
Farmers say “pay me more federal dollars. You won’t see any dust.”
Just when you think bureaucrats couldn’t find anything more stupid to do or say, by golly they manage to top their own previous marks for idiocy.
So does this mean no more sliding into second?
F****** Washington DC commissars. Fat ass bureaucrats who don’t have the slightest clue what farmers do
Wsahinton DC is the new Imperioal Rome we pay tribute (outlandish taxes) to. There is never a recession in DC
“Enviromentalism kills more people than pollution ever will”
Banning DDT for example.
where do they come from ?
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