EPA Won't Re-Sign

 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is withdrawing from two agreements with Idaho concerning the regulating of animal feed lots. In a March 3 letter, attorneys for the EPA say the agreements with the Idaho Department of Agriculture and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality limit the federal agency's powers to monitor the industry. Bob Naerebout, Executive Director Idaho Dairymen’s Association, isn’t particularly confident that the EPA is as pure as their mission statement.

 (Naerebout) “I’m gonna give you 2 reasons. One is pretty factual and one would be subjective that the EPA would deny but I still think it holds merit. EPA from Washington D.C. has been given a mandate that they cannot be co-signers on a Memorandum of Understanding if the party being regulated is also on that Memorandum of Understanding. The second part which I think holds equal merit, there’s ten EPA regions in the United States. Region 10 is tenth out of ten in the assessments that they collect. If you’re being judged on the fines you’re collecting and you’re collecting zero, that means you have to change the basic premise of how you operate. They’re not being judged on whether they are successfully protecting the environment. They’re being judged on the dollars they collect.”