Solid Waste Legislation & Slowing The Wheels

Solid Waste Legislation & Slowing The Wheels. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington has pushed through the House another important piece of legislation. The House approved his amendment to prevent the EPA from expanding regulations under the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 to target farmers, livestock producers, and dairies. The amendment would prohibit funding for the EPA to issue new regulations under the Solid Waste Disposal Act.

NEWHOUSE: There are many laws and regulations both at the state and federal level which are appropriate mechanisms for protecting and ensuring our nations waters are kept clean but the problem I see is that RCRA is not one of them. RCRA was a law designed to govern sold waste and prevent open dumping. The major application of this law is regulating landfills. It was never intended to regulate animal waste.

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a proposal by Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon to put a stop to the Bureau of Land Management's new proposed management plan for Oregon's O&C federal forest lands. According to Walden, this amendment would simply delay the BLM's implementation of these plans, giving time for counties and interested parties to thoroughly review the more than 1,500 pages of analysis.

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