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Northey says air emission issues haven’t died

One of the state ag directors who met with regional EPA officials in Kansas City, Kansas last Friday says they were reassured that the agency would NOT regulate farm dust.

Bill Northey, Iowa Ag Secretary and the president of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, tells Brownfield the EPA officials repeated what their Administrator Lisa Jackson said about farm proposed dust regulations late last year.

“We certainly got that reiterated that they are absolutely not going to regulate farm dust. They have no plans to do it,” Northey says.

He tells Brownfield someone in their group asked if farm dust regulation could happen in a back door way, like, through a lawsuit.

“Nothing’s impossible from happening,” Northey says, “But the way that it’s laid out, I think it’s extremely unlikely to see any kind of farm dust regulation come about — Not with EPA wanting to make that happen and not with a lawsuit or something else forcing them as well.”

However, Northey says, there are other potential regulatory threats – discussions around concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), for example. The comment period recently ended on just such a proposal.

“So, there could well be some discussions in a different way,” says Northey, “Not a farm dust proposal but other kinds of things where there WILL be air emission issues that are out there.”

Northey and nine other ag directors or their representatives met with EPA Region 7 and Region 8 officials in Kansas City, Kansas.

Northey spoke with Brownfield at the 2012 Missouri Governor’s Conference on Agriculture in Kansas City, Missouri.

AUDIO: Bill Northey (3:00 mp3)