News

EPA will hold-off on milk spill regulations

The EPA says it will hold-off on the deadline for farmers to comply with the Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations. The rules are designed to prevent oil spills from getting into the waterways of the United States. The requirement is that storage facilities have a spill prevention plan certified by a professional engineer. The problem is milk contains butterfat and butterfat is classified as an oil so dairy farms with bulk milk storage would have to comply.

National Milk Producers Federation asked the EPA to exempt bulk milk storage from the rule. In a letter to NMPF dated June 9th, the EPA committed to finalizing the SPCC exemption for bulk milk storage “as expeditiously as possible …to have that process completed by early 2011.” In addition, EPA will be extending the compliance deadline for dairy producers until that time.