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Group: Dairy air rules not enough

BY ERIK LOYD, Californian staff writer
e-mail: eloyd@bakersfield.com | Monday, Jul 17 2006 9:45 PM

Last Updated: Monday, Jul 17 2006 9:49 PM

A Kern-based environmental group says not enough is being done about the valley's ag-related air pollution and has sued the region's air agency.

The group claims that the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District is not fulfilling its duty to enforce restrictions on ozone-forming emissions from large animal farms. Perhaps a judge's order will force the district to get serious, said Tom Frantz, president of the Association of Irritated Residents, based in Shafter.

"The (farm) industry has been given a get-out-of-jail-free card at the expense of our children's health," Frantz said.

A state law directs the district to have large livestock farms reduce emissions that, when mixed with other valley pollutants such as vehicle exhaust, form hazardous, ground-level ozone. But Frantz said the district allows farm operators to choose ineffective steps, and that it ignores problems associated with other compounds. Its methods of calculating reductions are flawed as well, he said.

District officials say the group is full of hot air. In fact, the valley environment is actually getting better -- slowly, said Dave Warner, director of permit services.

"The folks who say (the rules are) doing nothing are wrong," Warner said.

Producers may choose from a list of steps to reduce ozone-forming compounds. But Frantz contended that the steps have long been standard in the industry -- so how could there be any improvement?

Phil Jay, legal counsel for the district, said the group is contradicting itself with the claim.

"Before these rules were developed, the complainers said, 'nothing's being done,'" Jay said. "Now that the rules have been developed, they're saying, 'they're already doing this stuff.'"

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Fresno County Superior Court, seeks to force the air district to rework the regulations "so that we will get actual reduction" of all pollutants, not just those that contribute to ozone, Frantz said.