[ SHOWGSD-L ] Move on to class farmers as Superfund Sites
- From: "Ginger Cleary" <cleary1414@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Showgsd-L@Freelists. Org" <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 09:58:58 -0400
According to this movement your manure pile is now a toxic waste
hazzard the equivilent of Three Mile Island or Love Canal
Does Manure Make a Farm a Superfund Site?
Thursday , June 01, 2006
By Steven Milloy
Environmental activists are teaming up with state attorneys general
and trial lawyers to bankrupt the nation?s livestock farmers ? in
the name of saving the environment.
If the situation wasn?t so serious, it would be hilarious.
The activists ? including the Natural Resources Defense Council,
Sierra Club, and Union of Concerned Scientists ? are trying to
convince Congress that the nation?s farms should be treated as
industrial waste sites and therefore subject to severe penalties
under the federal Superfund law. Some state attorneys general,
supported by trial lawyers, have filed lawsuits toward the same end.
Why? Because, they argue, animal manure is a hazardous substance.
They are now demanding that Congress refuse to clarify that the
Superfund law was never intended to apply to natural animal waste.
They are claiming ? falsely ? that without Superfund, animal waste
would be unregulated.
The fact is that manure already is heavily regulated under the Clean
Water Act, Clean Air Act and other federal and state regulations.
They are claiming ? falsely ? that small family farms won?t be
affected. The reality is that under Superfund, huge penalties can be
levied against small operations and even individuals. Tens of
thousands of small family farmers could be affected.
Congress never intended the Superfund law to apply to the nation?s
farms ? it was designed to clean up industrial waste sites like Love
Canal. But because it did not specifically exempt animal waste,
activists are now seizing on this lack of clarity to haul farmers
before the courts and apply the draconian penalties permissible
under Superfund.
If the activists are successful, farmers could face penalties of
many millions of dollars and thousands of small farmers could be
forced off their land.
?The domestic livestock industry would be driven from this country,
the grain industry would be crippled, and farm families and
communities would be devastated,? Oklahoma Farm Bureau chief Steve
Kouplen warned Congress last November.
?If animal manure is found to be a hazardous substance under
Superfund, then virtually every farm or ranch in the United States
could be written off as a toxic Superfund site,? says Missouri
cattleman Mike John, who is also president of the National
Cattlemen?s Beef Association.
The activists? efforts are a deliberate distortion of the law,
devised by some local authorities and a small army of trial lawyers
seeking large settlements in which they ? and the activist groups ?
would be the chief beneficiaries.
?It?s simply a shake-down,? one dairy farmer told Congress.
?It would be a mockery of congressional intent,? commented Bob
Stallman, head of the American Farm Bureau Federation. He notes that
farms and ranches that raise livestock are already among the most
regulated business sectors for environmental quality, subject to
extensive federal and state laws and regulations.
Farmers are by their nature pro-environment. Healthy crops and
livestock depend on a healthy environment. None of this apparently
matters to the activists, who may also see manure as a means to gain
political sway over farmers.
Given that federal and state environmental regulators are often
sympathetic to, if not in outright league with, environmental
activists, and that the Superfund law provides regulators with much
discretion as to how to identify and manage sites to be cleaned up,
treating farms as Superfund sites would essentially provide
activists a powerful political weapon to be used against farmers at
the activists? discretion. Farmers who don?t toe the
environmentalist line may find their farms declared as Superfund
sites.
Congress inadvertently caused this problem in the first place by not
exempting animal manure from the original Superfund law. But who
could imagine that such an exemption would be necessary?
The good news is that Congress can quickly solve the problem by
passing a simple amendment to the Superfund law, clarifying that
farm manure is not considered a hazardous substance under the Act. A
bipartisan bill to this effect has already been introduced in the
House with nearly 160 co-sponsors. A companion bill with bipartisan
support is about to be introduced in the Senate.
Congress needs to get this done soon for the sake of this country?s
farmers, consumers ? who would face escalating food prices and
shortages ? and just plain common sense. Cattleman Mike John says,
?It?s just plain insulting to suggest naturally occurring manure on
our family farm deems us a Superfund site.?
Manure, it seems, is the appropriate word for this latest activist
initiative.
Steven Milloy publishes JunkScience.com, CSRWatch.com. He is a junk
science expert, an advocate of free enterprise and an adjunct
scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute .
_______________________________________________
Ginger Cleary, Rome, GA
"A lie gets halfway around the world before
the truth has a chance to put its pants on."
~ Winston Churchill
www.rihadin.com
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