Anti-Wotus Rule & Sign Up Now

Anti-Wotus Rule & Sign Up Now

Anti-Wotus Rule & Sign Up Now plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

The House of Representative's passed the Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act of 2014 Tuesday afternoon.  Passage is largely an attempt to halt the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' proposed Waters of the U.S. rule.  Senate action is unlikely however before the end of the year, or at all. Under current regulation, states have primary responsibility for regulating waters within their boundaries and twice the Unites States Supreme Court has reaffirmed this authority. The proposed rule strips this balance and expands federal jurisdiction to nearly every water in the country, including ditches, puddles and ponds.

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack is urging producers to enroll in disaster assistance programs now or get less money.

VILSACK: If you are not in the system, you make your appointment after that, you have your appointment. Your check is going to be 7 to 8% less than it would otherwise be. That's the impact of sequester so we want people to get that appointment scheduled for forage before September 30th. Now, if you've lost livestock or you're in the orchard business and you've lost trees, under the Livestock Indemnity Program and the Tree Assistance Program, you actually have to have your application not only filed but acted on before September 30th.

Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray.

It's a simple fact that most people will ask "what's in it for me" when they are asked to help out the environment. With this in mind the city of Beijing has for the past two years been encouraging people to recycle through the promise of personal gain - city commuters there can now pay for their subway ride by recycling a plastic bottle. Thirty-four "reverse" vending machines have been installed in subway stations around Beijing so that when commuters insert an empty plastic bottle a sensor scans it, values the plastic at anywhere from five to fifteen cents, and then the machine ejects a public transportation credit voucher or extra mobile phone minutes, if users have entered their phone numbers. The majority of these machines have been placed in high traffic areas, and city officials have said that more than 15,000 plastic bottles are being recycled on a yearly basis within the city by the use of these machines. Such a "free rewards" system for recycling seems to be catching on with other major cities around the globe that are installing "reverse" vending machines that offer similar rewards, such as bus passes, food truck vouchers and even tickets to city events. It would be refreshing to have people want to recycle merely for the sake of the planet. But then that really is unrealistic.

Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.

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