11/01/07 Caught in regulatory crossfire

When Bruneau Cattle Company owner Eric Davis agreed to pay a 40 thousand dollar fine he probably saved a lot of money by avoiding a costly legal battle. The federal Environmental Protection Agency accused him of allowing manure from his feedlot to flow into the Snake River in 2005 but Idaho Cattle Association executive director Josh Tewalt says it didn't happen dozens of times as EPA suggests. TEWALT "Out in the Bruneau country rainfall is not is not as common as one might think and that particular winter we got an awful lot of it in a very short amount of time which is going to cause some problems for folks." Tewalt says EPA made 30 inspections that winter and only found two problems. He says without the state program and preventative measures taken by producers there would have been more problems. Tewalt says Davis was caught in a fight between EPA and the state of Idaho. TEWALT "I hope that what comes out of this is that we can renew our talks with the EPA and the state Department of Ag, you know, and make sure we increase the communication, we better delineate the responsibilities and we come out of this with an MOU that truly gives us some certainty on who does the inspections, who does the enforcements." Tewalt says producers need regulatory certainty or as he put it, "one place where we can surrender." Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott