The topic of regulating dust is back in the headlines in a pretty big way. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did this morning propose its long-awaited dust standard that has been the source of a lot of uneasiness in rural America.
That tension heated up when EPA staff announced that the administrator would be “justified” to double the stringency of the current dust standard, officially known as the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for coarse particulate matter.
There was that talk about doubling it. News out today is that the EPA is looking to retain the current standard.
However, with that, Ashley McDonald who is the Deputy Environmental Counsel for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says that the issue of farm dust regulation is far from over. She says that they’ve learned from the last two reviews of this standard that the final standard can look quite a bit different than the proposal.
The EPA isn’t just looking at this on a whim. The agency is required to review its standards for particle pollution every five years to see if its standards should be revised. A federal court had ordered the EPA to sign the proposed particle pollutions standards by yesterday because the agency had not met its five-year legal deadline for reviewing the standards.
This is going to be open for public comment. Once it is written into the federal register, that comment period will go on for 63 days. When the comment period officially opens, you will find the link to post your comments HERE. The agency is also going to hold to public hearings. One will be in Sacramento and the other will be in Philadelphia. The final standards should be issued by December 14.
© Northern Ag Network 2012
with News from NCBA and EPA
Posted by Haylie Shipp
