EPA: Farming dust should be regulated

[Lagomorph]

http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2009/mar/01/epa-farming-dust-should-be-regulated/

DES MOINES, Iowa - Nothing says summer in Iowa like a cloud of dust behind a combine.

But what may be a fact of life for farmers is a cause for concern to federal regulators, who are refusing to exempt growers from new environmental regulations.

It's left some farmers feeling bemused and more than a little frustrated.

"It's such a non-commonsense idea that you can keep dust within a property line when the wind blows," said Sen. Charles Grassley, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee who still farms in northeast Iowa.

Under rules imposed in 2006, rural areas would be kept to the same standards as urban areas for what the Environmental Protection Agency calls "coarse particulate matter" in the air.

The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Pork Producers Council had petitioned the government to provide an exemption to farmers. They argued that evidence of harm caused by dust in rural areas hasn't been determined.

But the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington ruled Tuesday that the EPA had already provided the evidence necessary to determine farm dust "likely is not safe."

Michael Formica, a lawyer for the pork council, said this means farmers face the daunting task of proving a negative - that the dust is not harmful...

[vadawg]

1. what next, dust from dirt roads, i hate to break it to the EPA

but stour from fields and dust are parts of the rural experience, i wouldnt swap the dust from my farmroad for all the pollution of the DC beltway no matter what.

[KT2000]

14. You may want to

have that dust tested for pollution. It is likely higher in pollutants than the pollution of the DC beltway.
Dust goes up the nose and often contains higher levels - as in 1,000 times more - of the chemicals used around it. For example, if you know the pesticides used near your road, that is a good place to start for testing.

[lindisfarne]

2. No-till farming would help. Saves the earthworms, too. :>)

http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/no-till_revolution

[Democrats_win]

3. Some farmers no longer plow old wheat stalks after the harvest.

When it's time to plant they just plant over the old field.

The EPA needs to leave farmers alone.

[lindisfarne]

4. EPA needs to worry about the effects of manure pits, pesticides, fertilizers, and yes, dust. They

need to evaluate the negative effects of each. They need to provide advice on how to mitigate negative effects if possible, and decide when the negative effects are so serious as to merit steps to prevent (such as not allowing CAFOs, making certain pesticides illegal, and so on).

Keep in mind, dust is not just dirt - it can be toxic, depending on what's been dumped on it (and for an asthmatic, simple dust can be deadly). Obviously, steps can and should be taken to mitigate at least some of the negative effects, esp. on large-scale industrial farms.

[vadawg]

5. okay so you want to tarmac every mountain road, ill keep the dust

[lindisfarne]

6. You need to work on your reading skills. Nothing I said should have led to such a conclusion.n/t

[FarCenter]

7. Particularly since asphalt is the hazardous waste from oil refineries

It's all the bad crap they can't make into something else.

[noamnety]

8. That's my concern as well - toxic stuff that's been used

particularly at industrial farms. Borrowing from the Food Inc movie, we've all got the motion picture vision of what a farm is, but the reality is often very different. They can be huge commercial enterprises dealing with pesticides, chemical fertilizers, etc.

[tularetom]

9. Sometimes farmers need to be told what to do for their own good

like the guys who planted the same crops year after year after year until they leached all the nitrogen and phosphorus out of the soil.

And the guys who didn't practice contour planting and watched their hillsides erode away from wind and water.

Yep farmers always know better than them pointy headed intellectuals workin for the guvmint.

Farmers are the best in the world at shitting in their own food dish.

And before somebody gets in my face I was a farm kid and I still live on 40 acres of dry pasture out here.

[csziggy]

15. The EPA needs to talk to the Department of Agriculture and have them encourage

Innovative farming techniques instead of the plow, apply chemicals, plant, apply fertilizer and more chemicals methods of farming. No Till farming and minimal till farming are better methods of keeping soil and moisture in the ground, but they are seldom promoted by Department of Agriculture "experts." Both of those methods would greatly reduce dust from fields.

[Maru Kitteh]

18. As soon as the farmers give up their welfare checks and get their hands out of our pockets

Oops. Did I say welfare checks? I meant subsidy/welfare checks.

[vadawg]

19. okay, what other groups do you want to give up their welfare/subsidy checks

i mean if we dont want anyone putting their hands into our pockets we may as well start with everyone.

[Maru Kitteh]

20. Research Corn (caps intentional) in particular before you wade in to that fallacy

[Buzz Clik]

10. No till is not necessarily dust free. Every look at a field after a crop of soybeans?

The amount of residue from soybeans is pretty scant, and it degrades in a big hurry. A seed drill passing over that field with dry soil will generate dust.

[lindisfarne]

11. I said "helps". Perhaps the degree to which depends on exactly how no-till is done.

http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/choosing_cover_crops

Other research also supports:
See also
http://agron.scijournals.org/cgi/content/full/96/1/154
soft white wheat (SW)
Winter wheat (WW)–summer fallow (SF)
"Given the potential for continuous annual no-till SW to markedly reduce dust emissions compared with WW–SF, the equivalent profitability of these two systems provides the first reported potential win-win solution for no-till farmers and the environment in the low-precipitation zone of the inland PNW."

[Buzz Clik]

13. No argument that no till helps reduce dust and reduce erosion and controls weeds. No doubt. But...

... if EPA is preparing to impose fines or restrictions on farmers who allow fugitive dust emissions to escape their farms, then there is no answer.

Having driven through western Kansas when howling winds across empty, clean tilled fields reduced visibility to dangerous levels, I know the environmental impacts of not using reduced tillage. So, I'm with you; but the complaints on this thread suggesting EPA is being unrealistic are dead on.

[Rex]

12. The EPA is a pathetic joke, Reagan gutted that organization

just like Bush gutted the FCC and the FDA. Why don't they worry about huge corporate farms polluting millions of acres of land and let rural farmers do what they've been doing since we ran around in furs and rags?

[Xicano]

16. I smell a rat

Smells like a way of forcing more family and small farms into a non profitable situation so that big industrial farms can acquire more farms.

Just an opinion....

[XOKCowboy]

17. Incredibly stupid ruling...

Who is the EPA protecting here? The grain farmers who've lived with it all their lives?