EPA to Crack Down on Farm Dust

[The Northerner]

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering a crackdown on farm dust, so senators have signed a letter addressing their concerns on the possible regulations.

The letter dated July 23 to the EPA states, "If approved, would establish the most stringent and unparalleled regulation of dust in our nation's history." It further states, "We respect efforts for a clean and healthy environment, but not at the expense of common sense. These identified levels will be extremely burdensome for farmers and livestock producers to attain. Whether its livestock kicking up dust, soybeans being combined on a dry day in the fall, or driving a car down the gravel road, dust is a naturally occurring event."

http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/griffin/NEWS9/PDF/1007/EPALetter.PDF">Read the letter to EPA signed by 21 senators including Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn

Many in the Oklahoma farming industry are opposed to the EPA's consideration. One farmer said the possible regulations are ridiculous.

"It's plain common sense, we don't want to do anything detrimental," said farmer Curtis Roberts. "If the dust is detrimental to us, it's going to be to everybody. We're not going to do anything to hurt ourselves or our farm."

Roberts, a fourth generation farmer and rancher in Arcadia, said regulating dust in rural areas will hurt farmers' harvest, cultivation and livelihood.

"Anytime you work ground, you're going to have dust. I don't know how they'll regulate it," Roberts said. "The regulations are going to put us down and keep us from doing things we need to be doing because of the EPA."

Read more: http://www.news9.com/Global/story.asp?S=12899662

[Subdivisions]

1. Regulating farm dust? Monsanto must have a way of keeping dust down from

plowing fields.

[kestrel91316]

7. I suspect they have a plan to keep dust in crop fields down by spraying some

sort of toxic petroleum product on them.

[Subdivisions]

9. Yep. Will be interesting to watch as this develops. n/t

[valerief]

12. Sounds about right to me. Wouldn't make a law without someone making a profit off it. nt

[DCBob]

2. Oh dear, the GOPers are going to pounce all over this one...

however, I do agree with EPA.

[Angry Dragon]

8. What is it that you agree with??

just asking........

[DCBob]

14. cracking down on farm dust..

[damntexdem]

3. And to dust it shall return.

A competition could be set up -- call it the Dust Bowl. ;-)

[DJ13]

4. Watering the fields ahead of time would then add to the shortage of water

Sometimes (most times) our politicians dont think ahead.

[valerief]

13. They don't care. They think with their wallets. nt

[texastoast]

5. This is goofy.

GOOFY, unworkable, expensive to enforce, and I don't want my tax money spent for this.

Idiots.

[dipsydoodle]

6. I can understand the problem

but would've thought the efforts of your EPA might be better spent on issues more easy to control and less subject to the whims of the weather - protecting public water supplies from fracking fluids for example.

[zabet]

10. They should have

cracked down on BP.

[jaxx]

11. This isn't new.

Federal court upholds EPA's rural dust rule

By ROBIN BRAVENDER, Greenwire
Published: February 25, 2009

<snip> In its response (pdf) to a host of legal challenges brought against the Bush administration's 2006 standards for airborne soot and dust, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia refused to exempt the regulation of farm dust.

<snip> But environmentalists said EPA was right to err on the side of caution.

S. William Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, said that coarse airborne particles in rural areas were often coated with pesticides, herbicides, toxics or metals, and could pose risks similar to those in urban areas.

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/02/25/25greenwire-federal-court-upholds-epas-rural-dust-rule-9867.html