A group of legislators, including Mike Johanns (R-NE), sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requesting that it maintain current particulate matter (PM) standards and abandon new dust regulation recommendations.
Recently, EPA released its final Quantitative Health Risk Assessment for Particulate Matter in which it suggests that EPA would be justified in either retaining the current levels or lowering the current levels by about half. The letter states that this "would be twice as stringent as the current standard" and meeting the current standard has been "difficult if not impossible for industries in the Western portion of the country."
The letter continues, stating that the lower levels would be "extremely burdensome for farmers and livestock producers to attain" and that "dust is a naturally occurring event."
The policy assessment is part of a process which is required every five years under the Clean Air Act and it will "serve as the basis of EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee's (CASAC) consideration" of whether to revise the current PM standard, according to Ag Week.
To read the press release from Senator Johanns, click here.
To read the letter to EPA, click here.
For the full text of the Policy Assessment document, click here.
To read the Ag Week story, click here.
Posted: 07/27/2010
