10/18/06 New air rules worry ag

Farm and Ranch October 18, 2006 The Environmental Protection Agency recently released new air quality standards which the American Farm Bureau Federation says could be a problem for farmers and ranchers. American Farm Bureau regulatory specialist Paul Schlegel says the rules deal with particulate matter, which among other things means dust. Schlegel: "We are concerned in that the agency's initial proposal had a provision which would have exempted agricultural sources from the particulate matter provisions and we strongly supported that exemption. The final rule unfortunately doesn't include that agricultural exemption." Schlegel says that means there are serious questions about the impact the new rules will have on agriculture. Schlegel: "You could have circumstances under which growers could be sued for violating standards if the monitors show that they are exceeding the daily standard. We want to make sure that we don't have any regulation which is not based on the law or the science." Schlegel says there is no scientific basis for saying that dust from farms causes health problems. Schlegel: "If you are out there disking or harvesting and you have particulate matter, dust, that gets into the air, in theory you might have exceed dances and so we are concerned. We don't know the exact impact from crop to crop but clearly there is a potential there. Schlegel says EPA did not include the ag exemption from these new standards because it did not feel it could withstand a legal challenge. Schlegel: "I think we probably disagree with their conclusion, but the fact is, it's not in the final provision." I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.