|
Home >
Legislative Tracker
> Clean Air Agriculture Exemption
Agriculture:
Clean Air Agriculture Exemption
Our Position: monitor
Bill Number: SB 235
Sponsor: Oregon Department of Agriculture
Legislative Session: 2007
At a hearing in early April, in a 3-2 vote, the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee adopted the 'dash-1' amendments to SB 235, which the Sierra Club and small farm advocacy groups supported. However, in the final days of the Legislature, the Ways and Means Committee removed the strongest public and environmental health provisions of the amended bill and replaced with them with a task force on dairy air quality that can make recommendations for future policies related to air quality from large concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFO's.
While such a task force is a step in the right direction, the bill actually ties the state's hands from being able to set standards for ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, two of the worst pollutants associated with CAFO's that are not covered by the Clean Air Act. The final bill's focus on dairy also did nothing to help rural residents fight the increasing growth of out-of-state poultry operations such as the proposed Foster Farms facility in Canby, which will locate 250,000 chickens at a time (and up to 1.5 million per year) within a mile of 200 local residents.
The version of SB 235 the Sierra Club supported directed the state Environmental Quality Commission to set air pollution standards for CAFO's and other industrial agricultural operations to protect clean air and public health by allowing the regulation of specific pollutants such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, as well as provisions to protect special places such as the Columbia Gorge from agriculure air pollution sources. This would have only applied to large CAFO's and other large agricultural sources of air pollution, not small farms or livestock operations.
Status
Negotiations between the governor's office, conservation and public interest groups, and the industrial agriculture lobby to forge a compromise on this bill fell apart due to opposition from the industry to setting standards for hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, two of the most hazardous pollutants associated with CAFO's that are not currently covered by the Clean Air Act. Instead of giving the state authority to set such standards, the bill that passed the Ways and Means Committee creates a task force on dairy air quality charged with making recommendations to the legislature on potential policies and regulations to reduce air pollution from large dairy operations.
Because this legislation backed away from setting real standards for air pollution from large poultry, dairy and other CAFO's, and appears to tie the state's hands from setting such standards without future action from the legislature, the Sierra Club could no longer fully support this bill and will monitor its implementation closely while pushing for further legislative action in the future.
Calls to the Governor and legislators supporting limits on ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and methane from large CAFO's, is critical in order to get the state to take appropriate action to protect public health and the environment.
More information
For more information, contact Ivan Maluski at 503-238-0442, x304 or ivan.maluski@sierraclub.org
Background
Since the early 1960's in Oregon, agricultural operations were given an exemption from clean air rules, including the federal Clean Air Act. This was not a serious issue as Oregon's agricultural sector had primarily been smaller and medium scale operations. However, in more recent years, this loophole has attracted increased scrutiny after studies revealed that acid rain and fog were entering the Columbia River Gorge from the east, linked in part to ammonia gases rising from the waste ponds generated by some 55,000 cows at a CAFO near Boardman, Oregon called Threemile Canyon Farms. Threemile Canyon is already Oregon's largest dairy operation and by their own admission release 5.6 million pounds of ammonia each year, three times the amount of all other industry in Oregon combined.
With no air quality rules in place for agriculture, Oregon has become a magnet for new factory scale CAFO's. According to a 2006 article in the Oregonian, plans for more than 20,000 new cows are in the works for northeast Oregon. And permits for several new large concentrated poultry operations in the Willamette Valley emerged shortly after the 2007 legislative session wrapped up. One such operation near Canby, proposed by Washington's state's Foster Farms, would locate 250,000 chickens within a mile of 200 hundred homeowners and has generated strong local opposition. Because it was so watered down, it appears that SB 235 will provide no help for these concerned members of the public in their effort to protect their air quality from an out of state CAFO operation looking to take advantage of Oregon's weak rules.
These examples have prompted calls to close the air quality loophole for large concentrated animal feeding operations and to set standards for specific pollutants such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and methane as a means to protect Oregon's special places, air quality, and rural communities as they face increasing air pollution from large factory farms.
|
