Agency revising rules for farmers
Posted on Wednesday, October 8, 2008
By early November, the Environmental Protection Agency will mandate that nutrient management plans be included when concentrated animal-feeding operations - such as large beef, pork and poultry farms - apply for permits.
The nutrient management plans should help reduce agricultural runoff into streams and rivers, but the move is not without controversy.
"If past is prologue, I'm confident we will be sued by agricultural groups as well as environmental groups," Benjamin Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the EPA, told about 200 people at the Arkansas-Oklahoma Water Quality Forum held Monday at John Brown University.
The new requirement will be part of a revision to a 2003 rule the EPA made regarding commercial poultry and cattle operations. Grumbles said the new regulation will "increase accountability and environmental protection."
It will be implemented at the state level as part of what Grumbles calls "national standards and neighborhood solutions. "The revision also will include information about when to apply for a permit.
Ted Collins, county executive director for the U. S. Department of Agriculture in Benton and Washington counties, said area farmers have been including nutrient management plans with permit applications for the past six to eight years.
"I would hope Northwest Arkansas farmers are ahead of the curve on that," he said.
Monday's meeting between Oklahoma and Arkansas officials came as the states are at odds over the Illinois River watershed. Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson sued eight poultry companies with operations in Arkansas in 2005, accusing them of polluting the watershed. Arkansas state agencies have supported the poultry companies' position in the lawsuit. The 99-mile river, which starts near Hogeye in Washington County, crosses into Oklahoma south of Siloam Springs.
"What we need is good science and common sense," said U. S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., who cohosted the forum with U. S. Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla., although Boren couldn't attend.
Collins said he believes the USDA will approve a conservation reserve enhancement program for the Illinois watershed in Washington and Benton counties.
The $ 33 million program would allow the USDA to enter into 15-year contracts with farmers who volunteer to take land out of use along rivers and streams. Trees and native grasses would be planted on those acres to buffer runoff that flows into streams and rivers.
About $ 30 million for the program would come from the USDA's Farm Service Agency and $ 3 million from the state, Collins said.
Final approval should come within the next month, he said.
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