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Livestock air emissions deadline looms

 

A spokesperson for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says the U.S. Coastguard national response center could crash when the livestock industry files air emissions reports later this month.

Chief environmental counsel Scott Yager tells Brownfield more than 200,000 livestock producers will have 24-hours to call the Coastguard on January 22, to meet a new air emissions requirement. He says in mid-November, some farms decided to report early and caused substantial delays to actual emergencies.

“They went from 150 calls a day to over a 1,000 calls a day, and that was just based on those additional farm reports.  It resulted in wait times of over two hours to phone calls that required an immediate emergency response.”

Yager estimates more than 65,000 beef producers will be impacted by the DC Circuit Court ruling which overturned an EPA exemption for livestock operations that emit more than 100 pounds of ammonia or hydrogen sulfide per day to report emissions.  “What it breaks down to is about 208 head of cattle based on Texas A & M’s emission calculator.  Under University of Nebraska’s it’s a little bit higher but in the same ballpark, and that is 330 head of cattle.”

He says because the requirement has already been delayed twice through the court system, it will take an act of Congress to fix.

Yager says they are encouraging members not to report until the mandate issues and to contact their lawmakers to act on the ruling.

AUDIO: Interview with Scott Yager

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