Agricultural News
New Dust Regulations Could Be Devastating to Agriculture
Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:48:48 CDT
Dust regulations have been in existance since 1978, however, these regulations have never directly applied to agriculture or agricultural practices. But the most recent regulations to come into play from President Obama and the Enviromental Protection Agency are the most stringent regulations on agricultural dust so far.
Tamra Thies of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association says the EPA is more concerned about dust in urban areas rather than rural areas because of pollutants from vehicular traffic that becomes attached to the dust particles. However, the EPA claims that rural areas can not be exempt from this rule because there needs to be a national standard on dust regulation.
The current regulations on dust only allow for one violation per year to be in attainment, which the EPA is currently trying to allow for more violation opportunities says Thies. While this does sound odd, the EPA is trying to prevent putting areas with more dust spikes per year into non-attainment says Thies.
Thies says while the EPA wants to allow for the additional dust spikes, they are going to have to make the standards twice as stringent. And once the standards are made twice as stringent, it will be devastating for agriculture says Thies.
Click on the LISTEN bar below to hear more from Tamra Thies of the NCBA on new dust regulations and what they mean to agriculture.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network- but is also a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the listen bar below for today's show- and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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