Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer an amendment that I know the gentlewoman from Minnesota will like on an issue critical to livestock farmers, not just in my State and district, but across the country. In 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency approached four dairies in Washington State about high nitrate levels in nearby wells, suspecting semi-permeable manure lagoons may be the cause. The dairies entered into a consent decree with EPA to identify and treat the cause if it was, in fact, stemming from the dairies. Disturbingly, an environmental group FOIA'd the information the dairies provided to EPA and used it to file a citizen suit under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, or RCRA, against the dairies. Unfortunately, in early 2014 a Federal judge ruled with the environmental group, asserting that dissolved nitrates constituted a solid waste under the law, and high nitrate levels constituted open dumping. There are a number of problems with this case. However, the biggest one by far is the very law used to file the lawsuit. To be clear, there are a number of laws and regulations both at the State and the Federal level which apply to nutrient management, such as the Safe Drinking Water Act or the Clean Water Act. The problem is, Congress never intended RCRA to be used to regulate agriculture. In fact, EPA expresses that RCRA does not apply to agricultural waste, including manure and crop residue, returned to the soil as fertilizers or soil conditioners.…”