Nitrate Study Peer Review Pt 3
I'm Bob Larson. Dairy farmers in the lower Yakima Valley are being blamed for groundwater contamination through an EPA nitrate study that was never subjected to a peer review per policy standards.Save Family Farming Executive Director, Gerald Baron says the EPA has brushed aside calls for the review since the study came out in 2012 ...
BARON ... "The EPA administration right now doesn't seem to be taking this very seriously. We've also asked the Department of Justice to look into this situation and we're asking them for a criminal investigation because we believe crimes have been committed by members of the Region 10 staff."
Baron says it's all come at a great cost ...
BARON ... "Because we know, directly as a result of this EPA action, we have lost farmers. We have lost multi-generation farms. We know of one farm that's picked up operations and gone to another state. We know of another farm that was under the enforcement order initially that just quit business. We know that one farm, one farm alone in Eastern Washington, has spent upwards of $10-million to comply with this EPA order and the litigation that's related to it."
And, Baron says the media isn't helping ...
BARON ... "If you go back to the CAPO hearing, the Pollution Controls Hearings Board, the attorney, that's suing these farms and was suing the Department of Ecology over this permit, made it very clear that he's basing his position on this false EPA nitrates study, and the media, members of the media, continue to refer to this EPA nitrates study as if it's the truth."
U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse recently requested a "legitimate" EPA peer review on the nitrate study.