Air quality regulators want to reduce pollution from cows

[Kadie]

Posted on Wed, Jun. 16, 2004

Air quality regulators want to reduce pollution from cows

TIM MOLLOY

Associated Press


LOS ANGELES - Air quality regulators are proposing what they say would be the first attempt in the country to regulate smog-forming emissions from cow manure.

Cows in Southern California dairies, especially around the farm community of Chino, produce 1 million tons of manure every year, according to the South Cost Air Quality Management District, which is proposing the new rules.

As it decomposes, the manure releases more than 20 tons of pollutants daily - mostly ammonia - and combines with pollution blown downwind from Los Angeles and Orange counties, aggravating Southern California's worst-in-the-nation smog problem.

Dairy farmers use front loaders and tractors to remove the manure from corrals, then take most of it to farms to be spread as fertilizer. Some of it is also taken to a device called an anaerobic digester that breaks down manure and produces fuel in the process.


more... http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/8939762.htm

[mark414]

1. stupid

they need to look at the REAL problem of smog...

[Spinzonner]

2. I heard that

cows dont really take injunctions seriously.

Maybe time to invest in cork futures ...

[LittleApple81]

3. I thought for a minute they were going to forbid cows to fart! n/t

[Fitzovich]

4. I think

that was the Reagan Era answer to air pollution, if memory serves correctly.

[struggle4progress]

5. Concentrated animal operations can really foul the air.

We have a real problem with pig farms in NC. This story isn't simply bullsh*t.

From the AQMD website:

<snip>
... manure is scraped up and stockpiled in corrals, where it decomposes and emits large amounts of ammonia and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Ammonia emissions in the atmosphere readily combine with nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides – both byproducts of fuel combustion – to form ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate particles in the PM10 and PM2.5 size range .... VOCs combine with nitrogen oxides to form ozone smog. Both pollutants are linked to serious health effects ranging from worsened symptoms of asthma, heart and lung diseases to early deaths.
Southern California’s smog is so severe that AQMD is mandated to adopt all feasible measures, including the dairy rule, as quickly as possible to meet health-based standards for ozone and fine particulates. Due to their geographic location, dairies play a unique role in the Southland’s air pollution problem.
“Inland Empire dairies are directly downwind of large amounts of nitrogen oxide emissions generated in Los Angeles and Orange counties,” Wallerstein said. “When ammonia from the dairies combines with those nitrogen oxides, it creates a burst of PM10. That is one reason why the Rubidoux area downwind of the dairies has the highest annual average PM10 level in the country.”
<snip>
http://www.aqmd.gov/news1/2004/dairyrulepr.html