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Mar 21, 2018

*Update:  Shortly after this podcast aired, Congress passed the Fair Agricultural Reporting Method Act within the Omnibus Spending bill.  This Act exempts emissions from animal waste at farms from being reported.*

 

He's back!  This is Jim's third appearance on the Podcast, and today he is here to talk about a really important issue that makes reporting air emissions from animal waste be on the horizon for many agricultural producers.  Under the federal environmental law CERCLA, anyone emitting certain amounts of hazardous materials into the air must file reports with the National Response Center.  In 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency passed an exemption from this reporting requirement for most agricultural producers. In 2017, however, a federal court found that exemption to be illegal in a case called Waterkeeper Alliance v. Environmental Protection Agency

In light of this, beginning May 1, 2018 (subject to further stay by the court or EPA), producers whose operations emit more than 100 pounds of ammonia or hydrogen sulfide in a 24 hour period must report these emissions.  As Jim explains, determine how to measure this is complicated and can be confusing, but the reporting process itself can be done online and seems as though it will be fairly painless.

Any livestock, horse, poultry, etc. owners need to be aware of this law and impending deadline and determine if it may apply to his or her specific operation.

Contact info for Jim Bradbury

(Email) jim@bradburycounsel.com 

(Website) http://bradburycounsel.com/

(Twitter) https://twitter.com/jimbluewind 

Links to info mentioned on the show

 - Blog post on Waterkeeper Alliance v. Environmental Protection Agency 

- EPA website for reporting and agriculture

- EPA list of resources for calculating emissions by head