AGRICULTURE
A14 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2022
Groups petition Oregon to regulate dairy emissions
BY GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
A coalition of 22 environ-
mental, public health and ani-
mal welfare groups is petition-
ing Oregon regulators to adopt
new rules targeting air pollution
from large-scale dairies.
The petition, filed Aug. 17
with the state Environmental
Quality Commission, seeks to
create a dairy air emissions pro-
gram that would apply to farms
with 700 or more mature cows,
which the federal Environmen-
tal Protection Agency defines as
a “large” operation.
Under the program, proposed
and existing dairies would be
required to obtain an air quality
permit and curb harmful emis-
sions. They include ammonia,
methane, hydrogen sulfide and
particulate matter, among oth-
ers.
Opponents argue the pro-
posal is misleading, and would
include family farms that can ill
afford more costly regulations.
Emily Miller, staff attorney
for Food and Water Watch, esti-
mated the proposal would apply
to 91 dairies in Oregon. That is
39% of all Grade A dairies and
have 84% of all cows.
“For too long, the state has
sat idly by while Oregon me-
ga-dairies have been spewing
toxic pollution into the air,
Threemile Canyon Farms/Contributed Photo
Threemile Canyon Farms is Oregon’s largest dairy, with 70,000 cows about 15 miles west of Boardman along the Columbia River. A coalition of 22
environmental, public health and animal welfare groups is petitioning Oregon regulators to adopt new rules targeting air pollution from large-
scale dairies.
wreaking havoc on our natural
resources, climate and commu-
nities,” said Miller, the petition’s
lead author. “This head-in-the-
sand approach must change.”
The commission has 90 days
to respond.
Confined animal feeding op-
erations such as dairies are jointly
regulated by the state’s Depart-
ment of Agriculture and Depart-
ment of Environmental Quality.
However, the agencies are
only responsible for ensuring
the manure handled by CAFOs
does not contaminate surface or
ground water.
As early as 2008, a state-con-
vened Dairy Air Quality Task
Force recommended a dairy air
emissions program in its report
to ODA. Fourteen years later,
Miller said, almost nothing has
been done.
“Meanwhile, these operations
keep getting bigger and bigger,
and keep emitting more pollu-
tion into Oregon’s atmosphere,”
she said. “This program is long
overdue.”
Food and Water Watch’s anal-
ysis of state and federal data
shows dairies with more than
2,500 cows in Oregon collec-
tively release more than 17 mil-
lion kilograms of methane every
year, equivalent to the emissions
from 318,000 cars.
Miller said not only are meth-
ane emissions exacerbating cli-
mate change, but pollutants can
also cause health problems for
employees and nearby commu-
nities. She said more than one-
third of all dairy cows in the
state are in Umatilla and Mor-
row counties.
The largest dairy, at
Threemile Canyon Farms, has
70,000 cows about 15 miles west
of Boardman along the Colum-
bia River.
Mary Anne Cooper, vice
president of public policy for
the Oregon Farm Bureau, said
the petition is a new tactic from
groups that have long opposed
large dairies.
In 2017, legislation was intro-
duced in the state Senate direct-
ing the EQC to establish a dairy
air emissions program.
That bill, SB 197, died in
committee.
Cooper said dairies have
already voluntarily adopted
best management practices to
minimize air emissions, such
as a methane digester built
at Threemile Canyon Farms,
which is used to generate elec-
tricity and renewable natural
gas.
The petition, Cooper said,
claims to address so-called
“mega-dairies,” yet the threshold
of 700 or more cows is “very
much family-scale operations in
this state.”
“You cannot support a family
on a couple hundred milk cows,”
she said. “Their costs already ex-
ceed what they’re getting on the
market for their product.”
Between added costs due to
inflation and the passage of a
state law mandating farmwork-
ers be paid overtime, Cooper
said it has already been a diffi-
cult year for producers.
“This (air emissions pro-
gram) will have a real impact on
people and on families,”
she said. “We have an industry
with such tight margins. They’re
already trying to figure out
how to accommodate a number
of new regulatory burdens
this year alone.”
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