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Large animal farms should meet smog rules

By LINDA MacKAY, Lebec | Thursday, May 18 2006 8:10 PM

Last Updated: Thursday, May 18 2006 8:14 PM

I live in the Frazier Mountain community of Lebec, and l recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to represent the regional organization I belong to, the Association of Irritated Residents, to lobby against several bills.

If passed, they will exempt large animal facilities from federal laws that require air quality monitoring, and also exempt these facilities from financial responsibility for any pollution cleanup the facilities may cause while operating.

Currently, agricultural lobbying groups and some members of Congress are looking for those exemptions through the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act and the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act.

The San Joaquin Valley-based group, AIR, along with our legal counsel, the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, have been key organizational forces behind requiring new large dairies to file for permits and reduce smog-forming pollution under the Clean Air Act in California.

California is the first state to require these permits. While in Washington, I was joined by other community representatives from Missouri, Ohio, Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas who are also concerned about large animal facilities and the impacts these facilities have on health and the environment.

Seven or eight years ago the average dairy in the San Joaquin Valley had well under 1,000 cows. But today there are dairies and dairy complexes being built in the valley that have several thousand cows.

The 28,000-cow Borba dairy complex near Bakersfield will emit at least 2.13 million pounds of ammonia each year if it reaches its maximum growth, making it the 16th largest source of ammonia in the country.

Ammonia is a toxic gas and a precursor to the most prevalent form of wintertime particulate matter in the San Joaquin Valley air basin.

I strongly believe that in addition to Bakersfield, mountain communities also need to be concerned about the valley's air. The bad air of the valley becomes concentrated at its south end, and there are times when you can see the brown air coming up into the mountain communities as you drive down the Grapevine. It looks like smoke coming up the mountain.

Small family farms that operate responsibly and don't pollute are already exempt within CERCLA and EPCRA, but the large animal facilities that are moving into the valley should be regulated like all other factories.

We have a public health crisis in Kern County. Bakersfield is the most smog-polluted city and the second most particulate matter-polluted city in the country, according to the recent State of the Air Report by the American Lung Association, reported by The Californian recently.

This smog and particulate pollution causes huge consequences, including at least $3.2 billion in costs that the public bears by not meeting federal health standards.

We must all do our share to clean the air -- exempting animal facilities from air pollution laws is very bad policy.

Linda MacKay of Lebec is secretary of Association of Irritated Residents. Community Voices is an expanded commentary that may contain up to 500 words. The Californian reserves the right to reprint commentaries in all formats, including on its Web page.