Water Quality Letter & Specialty Crop Dollars

Water Quality Letter & Specialty Crop Dollars. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse from Washington has led a letter to U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy urging the EPA to withdraw its proposal to impose federal water quality standards, specifically Human Health Water Quality Criteria on the State of Washington.

NEWHOUSE: I think that this was an effort on our part to reestablish the state's responsibility under the Clean Water Act to set their own standards and state that it is not the role of the federal government to do that. I'm hopeful that the agency will take notice of what we're saying and so I'm hopeful that this will move this issue in the right direction.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture and US Department of Agriculture have announced this year's recipients of Specialty Crop Block Grant Program funds. In Oregon, nearly $2 million will fund 24 projects to help boost the competitiveness of the state's fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, nursery crops, and other specialty crops. Oregon ranks seventh in the nation in production of specialty crops. Over the past eight years, Oregon has received close to $11 million in funding from the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, which has paved the way for 187 projects throughout the state.

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