EPA Won't Stir Up Any Dust

EPA Won’t Stir Up Any Dust. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

Any idea what “course particulate matter” is? It’s the government’s way of talking about farm dust when it’s discussing how to regulate it. And anyone knows that on a farm you are likely to raise a little dust. Well...a lot of it. You pretty much cannot drive a tractor through a field without raising a cloud. Even driving down a dirt road, well you get the idea. Recently the Environmental Protection Agency determined there is currently no need to make those regulations any tougher. American Farm Bureau Regulatory Specialist Andrew Walmsley says that’s good news for farmers and ranchers.

WALMSLEY: There were concerns that they might tighten standards for farm dust without a whole lot of scientific evidence. There is not evidence that suggests that it causes harmful impacts to human health.

Under the Clean Air Act EPA must review its air quality standards every five years. When the agency missed that deadline a federal court ordered them to make a decision by December 14th. Walmsley says EPA had indicated that tougher rules would be for soot – or fine particulate matter – and not for farm dust.

WALMSLEY: EPA has stuck by its word. It’s stuck by what the science says.

And that’s important to farmers and ranchers, because they could have been severely affected by any new rules.

WALMSLEY: It could possibly make it difficult to move cattle, to plant, to plow, to do the necessary fieldwork it takes to farm and ranch today. In areas of the country where it tends to be dusty, simply moving cattle could kick up too much dust. Driving a truck down a dry dirt road would potentially put areas out of compliance. Everyday farming activities would come under question, it would increase the cost of food. It would make it that much harder for a farmer to be competitive if these standards were tightened.

And luckily, for at least five more years, they won’t. Walmsley talks about how farm dust came to be an EPA issue.

WALMSLEY: Several years ago the EPA set standards for air quality on particulate matter PM-10 which is basically earth, dust, farm dust and it made it difficult for some areas of the country to meet those standards. 

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.