Air Rule Could Force Change at Farms

By Warren Lutz, The Record, Stockton, Calif.

Jun. 12–STOCKTON — Hundreds of animal farmers across the San Joaquin Valley will have to change how they do business if officials adopt a new air-pollution regulation next week.

The new rule requires farmers to adopt new practices in order to reduce the release of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. In the Valley, VOCs generally come from decaying animal manure, which combines with nitrogen oxides from farm tractors and domestic vehicles to make the Valley one of the dirtiest and deadliest air basins in the country.

The new regulation applies to both swine and dairy farms but is likely to cause a bigger impact among the San Joaquin Valley’s 1.5 million-head dairy industry. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District votes on the rule, which applies to the 230 dairy farms with more than 1,000 cattle, next week.

Because dairy farmers have never faced clean air rules before, some say it’s a new era for the industry.

“We’ve moved into a new world of regulatory requirements, so it’s not going to be business as usual,” said Kevin Abernathy, a spokesman for the California Dairy Campaign.

The proposed regulation stems from a 2003 state law that requires dairy farmers to reduce emissions.

Officials and dairy groups spent the next two years battling over how much pollution each cow produces and where it comes from. It was first thought that VOCs came mostly from ponds where animal manure is stored for later use, but more recent research suggests it comes from the manure itself as it begins to decay.

George Heinen, an air district engineer, said the turning point came after the Western United Dairymen, a Modesto-based industry trade group, sued the air district in Fresno Superior Court. An advisory group created out of a settlement from that lawsuit recommended that dairy farmers be allowed to choose from a list of practices that would lower emissions.

“They paved the way,” Heinen said.

The rule is designed to eliminate about 18 tons of VOCs per day, according to the air district.

Abernathy said the proposed rule gives dairy producers the opportunity to make their operations cleaner with practices that work for their individual farms. No two dairy farms are alike, he said.

The new regulation “will give us a good opportunities to come up with some good management measures that will benefit the whole environment,” he said.

But some believe the changes aren’t strong enough to make a difference.

Brent Newell, an attorney for the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, said the proposed rule only requires what many dairy farmers already do.

“The rule codifies the status quo,” Newell said. He called it a “paper exercise” and “an insult to the public.”

He also is upset the proposed regulation doesn’t take aim against ammonia, another problem area for dairies. Mixed with vehicle exhaust, ammonia helps produce tiny pollutant particles that lodge inside human lungs, triggering serious illness and even premature death, according to health studies. The air district views ammonia as a separate air pollutant that does not affect ozone levels.

Heinen acknowledged the district won’t actually measure the air quality of dairy farms but will perform unannounced spot checks to determine whether dairy farmers are using the promised practices.

Inspectors would investigate whether farmers are removing manure on a regular basis and keeping it covered at a certain height, Heinen said.

“With a visible inspection, you can see that,” he said.

Some in the dairy industry said many dairy farmers already do control VOC emissions by flushing manure away from cows with water, or scraping it off and covering it.

“Just about everybody has implemented some kind of changes on his farm,” said Mike Marsh, CEO of the Western United Dairymen.

Yet Marsh calls Newell’s assertion that the rule is useless “absurd.”

“The reductions would have already been realized if the practices were already in place,” he said.

Several local dairy farmers, it seems, still are trying to find out how the new rule could affect them.

Ann Silva, owner of the Bacchetti and Silva Dairy in Tracy, said she doesn’t know the details of the proposal except that it won’t apply to her farm, which has 750 cows.

But she knows air district officials are planning future rules for smaller dairies. And she has questions about whether such regulations actually help the environment and whether farmers can afford it.

“We want something doable,” Silva said. “We don’t mind changing our practice at times, as long as it’s financially feasible.”

Contact reporter Warren Lutz at (209) 546-8295 or wlutz@recordnet.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Record, Stockton, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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