Feedlot Regulations

EPA to withdraw from Idaho feedlot agreements
Associated Press - March 8, 2009 4:14 PM ET

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) - An official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the agency is withdrawing in April from two agreements with Idaho concerning the regulating of animal feed lots.

Ed Kowalski, head of EPA's regional enforcement group, says confined-animal feeding operations have become a national priority with the agency and it plans to play a more direct role in inspection and enforcement.

The agreements concerning the state's dairy and beef-cattle operations regulate such things as discharges of animal waste into state waters.

Attorneys for the EPA say the agreements with the Idaho Department of Agriculture and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality limit the federal agency's powers to monitor the industry. Link

The EPA apparently thinks they can better regulate agriculture in Idaho that those that live there. A great example of an intrusive federal government. When EPA was originally writing some of the rules concerning CAFO’s, I was in Washington, DC talking to one of their undersecretary’s and she didn’t realize that vegetation didn’t grow year round in northern climates. It’s never a good thing when Washington thinks they know more than those of us that live on the land.