01/26/05 Pork producers agreement with EPA

The National Pork Producers Council has reached a major consent agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency. Kimberly pork producer and chairman of the NPPC's Environmental Committee Dave Roper says a two-year study of livestock and poultry emissions helps everyone. ROPER "We decided you know it's a good thing to do because if they're going to enforce those regulations we would just as soon they used sound science and good methods to measure as opposed to doing some of the things that I've seen here in Idaho." The state of Idaho is about to embrace the measuring component called the Nasal Ranger, which Roper insists is ineffective two thirds of the time. Roper says once the air emission study is done, thresholds can be established. ROPER "And I would argue that there's going to be a significant amount of operations that don't need to do anything. That doesn't mean producers won't learn something. If there's something they can do even though they're not close to the threshold I know producers in this state long enough to know if there's a new technology out there that doesn't cost them a significant amount of money they're going to implement that technology." Roper says producers can volunteer without fear of EPA fines or punishments for past emissions thanks to amnesty during the two-year study. Environmental activists see the agreement as a sell out to agricultural interests. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott