CAFO’s Next Hurdle: Fine Particles
The EPA’s new fine particle standards will pose a major issue for agricultural operations unless someone gets in there (Congress) and grants them an exception. Final Rule - Regulatory Text (PDF) The new rules reduce the acceptable emission rate of fine particles (those less than 2.5 microns in size) from 65 per cubic meter of air to 35. There is also a second annual limit, 15 particles per cubic meter of air on average over a year’s worth of sampling.
The main focus of this rule was mobile sources (diesel trucks) and power plant smoke stacks (point source discharge). However, studies have shown that Ammonia discharges from CAFO’s would qualify as fine particles, and as livestock produces 50% of US ammonia emissions, the new rules should impact large scale producers.
The trouble with fine particles is that we humans cannot filter them out of our lungs, so once the get in, they have a tendency to stay there, and they are linked to heart and lung disease.
PM2.5 particles, often a combination of gas from chemical reactions and invisible droplets of moisture, are linked to heart and lung disease. EPA data say there’s some connection to lung cancer and to chronic respiratory disease in children.
Link.
States have until 2007 to identify which areas are in compliance with the new standards and which appear to be in violation. EPA enforcement would commence in 2010.
But when farmers feel the pinch, Congress is typically at the ready with relief:
One highly visible farmer, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said top EPA officials remain in the dark about realities of farming and dust. Days after the EPA issued its final rule, Grassley sent a letter to EPA Administrator Steven Johnson inviting him to come to Iowa this month "while I am harvesting my crop with our combine."
Grassley said he wants Johnson to personally show him "how a farmer is to contain dust … while combining."
The senator is concerned over the enforcement of the large particle rules on farming operations, dust and litter, but I imagine there are lots of concerns over fine particles over in the CAFO industry.
