EPA “dust regulation” on farmers discussed on Capitol Hill recently

Many said it wouldnt and couldnt happen! Many called me insane for writing about it! Conspiracy theory! A bad rumor! Even the EPA commented in the comment section on a past blog and refuted it!
The EPA responded and said that your allegations in the blog were unfounded! It sounds like even those within the EPA don’t know what the “higher ups” are doing to our country!

I wrote a version of this same article in the form of an email to my Mayors, State Rep, both City and County and their respective councils and commissioners to ask them to please watch this short YOU TUBE video and just watch where our congressmen are discussing and seeking ways to stop this in Congress, perhaps defunding the EPA so they can’t enforce these regulations on our farmers, who in my opinion are the back bone of our country! As I talk to many in my community, I get this feeling they are tiring from all these repeated regulatory attacks on their farms and livelihoods!

Our Mayors and our locally elected officials remaining silent and continuing to support this Regional Growth plan will only make our community more vulnerable to restrictive regulations as we give the EPA, DOT and HUD full reign in Bradley County for grant money!

The livable community grants that President Obama is handing out like candy and our Mayors are gladly accepting is going to put our property rights in grave danger!

Our property will be so heavily regulated that we will have no choice but to give it to the federal government pretty much like Mayfield Dairy Farm had to recently by conservation easement! (the latest tool to take your property rights away from you)

I asked them and among them was our own State Representative Kevin Brooks, who entered into a marriage with the catalyst of all this Regional development and ensuing regulations by the name of Beth Jones and the Southeast Tennesse Economic Development Council and the Chamber of Commerce!

I have asked them whom among you is going to step up and say enough is enough! Ignoring this will not make it go away! It only gives them quiet consensus to move forward!

Hoping and wishing this will go away will not make it go away! Accepting all the grant money and expect it to be “free money” with no strings attached is a very dangerous game to play with our lives and the constituency they represent!

So far and to date, not a single persin has called me or said they are willing to overlook the grant money and worry about the citizens of this county! For whatever reason, our elected officials think that requesting millions of our tax dollars to fix whatever, is the rule of the land!

I recently had a conversation with my State Representative and I posed this exact question! “why are we so bound to the federal grant dollar? His reply and I paraphrase was “ok, i got a bridge that needs repair, how are we going to fix it without grants” my instant reply was “then lets fix it” “lets put our house in order first, free up our tax money with a surplus and from that surplus we accept bids in the community and we go fix it” “we need to be more self reliant!” Our biggest mistake is being so darn reliant on the federal government to create jobs and fix things” “we became a great nation on the backs of a dream, an entrepeneur with enough tenacity to make it work, thats how you fix a bridge, not the federal governement making you jump through hoops for a dollar!” his immediate response was that he would give it some thought!

You know, I am getting tired of the wishy washy, meely mouthed,spineless, self centered, self serving, passive leadership in my presence! We need God fearing, patriotic, constitutionally based, fired up, pissed off people running for office in this area! Im done!

God bless our county, we are going to need it!

Watch this! Will blow your socks off! (may have to copy and paste it to you tube, some reason it will not let me choose it from this site!) Enjoy!

EPA regulating “dust” on farms in Bradley County via the Clean Air Act

Marshall Dillon riding out of Dodge City on a dusty autumn eve, coyotes whelping in the background, the movie credits crawling down the big screen! As the scene ends “dust fills the screen and the Marshall disappears in a heap of dust as he has done another good deed and he returns to his camp for an evening meal! Who knew this would eventually become a crime?
Forward 120 years the Marshall is handcuffed and brought to his knees with gun slinging EPA types on a tear with federal badges shining and guns gleaning down on him as the EPA begins to spout the New Clean Air Act upon him…..your dust behind your horse, sir, is greater than 150 micrometers per cubic meter and you are going to pay enormous fines, lose your ranch and or go to jail.
Sound a little far fetched? Perhaps a little theatrical, but the EPA is definitely cracking down on farmers and there is very little you can do about it.
The United States Senate recently wrote a letter to Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the US EPA by 21 Senators voicing their concerns regarding the expected regulations the EPA has planned for “dust violations” on our local farms. Some of the Senators that signed this letter most notably are Senators Chuck Grassley, Pat Roberts, Jim Bunning, John Conyers, Sam Brownback and Saxby Chambliss!
In the letter, they started out with concerns regarding the US Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) latest actions in its review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) which requires the EPA every five years to review current air standards, under the Clean Air Act.
The second draft policy assessment (PA) for Particulate Matter (PM) released on July 8, 2010 in the Federal Register, if approved, would establish the most stringent and unparalleled regulation of dust in our nations history.
According to the PA (policy assessment) for Particulate Matter, the EPA would be justified in either retaining the current levels of 150 micrometers per cubic meter for regulating coarse PM or in revising it to as some studies have suggested to levels of 65 to 85 micrometers per cubic meter, ending on the emphasis placed on the evidence and uncertainties. A coarse PM NAAQS of 65 to 85 micrometers per cubic meter would be twice as stringent as the current standard. They go onto say that current standards have been difficult if not impossible to adhere to and would most certainly be difficult to attain with a higher standard.
These identified levels will be extremely burdensome for farmers and livestock producers to attain. Whether it is livestock kicking up dust, soy beans being combined on a dry day in the fall, or driving a car down the road, dust is a naturally occurring event.
Producers could be potentially fined for not meeting the PM standards while practicing good management practices on their soil.
If the EPA publishes a rule that regulates dust at these low levels, excessive dust control measures could be imposed which could slow economic development and impose significant costs to farmers and businesses.
This is my favorite part and it is the last line in this letter and it goes like this “ Common sense requires the EPA to acknowledge that the wind blow and so does dust!”
Can you believe that I am sitting here chuckling and in the same sentence terrified of our Federal Government encroaching on us in this way and are actively fining people such as Kevin Rogers a farmer in Arizona who was recently fined for meeting his “dust quota!” he states “this affects our daily operations, just the fact that I have to go out and evaluate whats going on with the wind!”
Democrats in DC are making this a bipartisan issue and are stating that the EPA regulations are being exaggerated to scare the general public and to promote fear mongering. EPA spokeswoman Betsaida Alcantara said the agency is still reviewing its dust regulations but has “no plans to put stricter standards in place. My interjection here is “the sad part is they exist and are being enforced in the USA!”
“The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to evaluate its standards every 5 years for dust and other particulate matter and to tighten them if necessary to protect public health. Studies have linked particle pollution to a number of health problems including asthma, bronchitis and heart attacks. The EPA must have a public safety issue to enforce greater regulations and you can see they have a few.
A federal appeals court in 2009 turned down an appeal by farm groups for an exemption from dust regulations. An area is allowed to exceed 150 micrometers per cubic meter of air once in a three year period or face stiff fines. Average annual maximum levels at locations such as Sioux City, Iowa and Brookings South Dakota, typically vary from 60 to 80 micrograms , though dust pollution in the Brookings area spike at 120 micrograms in 2008 according to the EPA!
Do you realize what these regulations mean on our farmers? The farmers are being held to federal regulation because of an act of God! Dust from the Earth blowing onto their farm and they get fined heavily for it! Its absurd but happening very frequently!
The EPA rarely mentions the monitoring system that must be in place on every farm to fully enforce these regulations! That is another encroachment on your private property and warrants a separate blog that would make this one too lengthy for comfortable consumption!
Areas in Arizona and California including the smoggy San Joaquin Valley have been in violation of the 150 microgram limit for years, which is now affecting farmers like Rogers who are facing restrictions and fines on how they farm, because of dust!
The biggest beef that most farmers have today is from a study done by the EPA in April that suggests the agency would be justified in reducing the allowable limit for dust as low as 65 micrograms.
The EPA under pressure from farm groups and Senators like Chuck Grassley R, Iowa, who with others have proposed a bill to block the EPA from regulating dust, have announced it would set aside any decisions to change the regulations till 2013 and announced it would miss a September 30 deadline for issuing rules for green house gas emissions also.
The EPA has said on more than one occasion said that the farms cannot be exempt from farm dust regulations, but fall short on explaining why not.
Farm Regions found to be in violation of particulate limits are being given time to come up with plans for reducing the pollution. For example in the Phoenix area farmers can pick from several options to curb their pollution risk.
They can park their tractor when the wind is blowing harder than 20 mph, put gravel down or pave roads, limit the number times a field is tilled, minimize traffic on the farm, wet the fields or roads, don’t encourage the animals to kick up dust, not run multiple vehicles on the farm when the wind is blowing, opt not to work the farm when the wind is blowing, harvest on non windy days and work harder after a rain or heavy dew!
Mr Rogers who seems to have been made the example of how things are not to be done says he shouldn’t have to park his tractor on a windy day as he has been forced to do several times this year. He went on to say that “its been a great inconvenience and it shouldn’t have to be that way.”
What is our country coming to when we cant work our own land that has in some instances been worked for hundreds of years with no federal intervention or harassment. What has become of our society when we have allowed the Feds the easy access onto our property and told us that because the wind is blowing and dust from mother earth happens to be in the air we cant make a living to feed our families. Something is deathly wrong with this logic.
We must stand and say “feds stay off my private property, you have no business getting into my business on my own land!”
Marshall Dillon, I don’t know if he ever rode off into a sunset or kicked up a lot of dust in Dodge City, but I do know our forefathers are swirling up the dust up turning in their graves and are facing some heavy fines!!!”