4-19 IAN NCBA Dust

The EPA is on the trail of ranchers and farmers over how much dust they are kicking up and ag people are fighting back. The Administrator of the EPA received a letter Tuesday from 101 members of the U.S. House of Representatives expressing concerns about EPA’s potential revision to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Coarse Particulate Matter, more commonly known as dust. Here’s  Chief Environmental Council for the NCBA Tamara Thies: “What EPA has done is put out a document that says based on science, they would be justified to retain either the current standard that they regulate dust under or make it twice as stringent. Since they have the opportunity to retain the current standard instead of making it twice as stringent, which our studies have shown would put huge areas  of the United States into non-attainment, we think it’s silly to even think about changing the regulation. They claim that the two standards they are looking at would be equivalent when you look at the effect on the economy it certainly is not equivalent. In fact, if you have any dusty areas of all in the United States, they would be thrown into non-attainment.” How long will it be before the dust settles on this? “EPA has put off posing a rule on this but right now we are expecting a proposed rule in August.”