News

It’s final; no change to farm dust standards.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized the update to the national air quality standards as required by the Clean Air Act. The announced standards will have no effect on the existing daily standard for fine particles or coarse particles which includes dust from farms.

National Farmers Union vice president of Government Relations, Chandler Goule commended the EPA saying there has been a lot of misinformation about supposed regulatory overreach “so this final rule will hopefully put to rest any remaining anxiety regarding farm dust regulation by EPA.”

EPA says the announcement: builds on smart steps already taken by EPA to slash dangerous pollution in communities across the country. Thanks to these steps, 99 percent of U.S. counties are projected to meet the standard without any additional action.

It is expected that fewer than 10 counties, out of the more than 3,000 counties in the United States, will need to consider any local actions to reduce fine particle pollution in order to meet the new standard by 2020, as required by the Clean Air Act. The rest can rely on air quality improvements from federal rules already on the books to meet this new standard.

Read more from the EPA here: