Michigan Congresswoman Candice Miller has introduced legislation to direct the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) to change their designation of milk as an environmental hazard. Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA instituted a program called the Oil Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure Program which directs producers to have an oil spill prevention plan (SPCC plan). The goal is to prevent oil from entering the navigable waters of the United States. However, the EPA rule states that because milk contains a certain percentage of animal fat, which is a non-petroleum oil, it is considered to be oil for the purposes of the SPCC program and should therefore require a facility that stores, transfers or uses milk to develop and implement an SPCC plan.
Before leaving office, the Bush Administration published an exemption to the rule for dairy but that exemption was put on hold when President Obama froze such actions upon taking office. Representative Miller’s bill would force the EPA to finalize the exemption.
Read Miller’s statement here:
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