EPA classifies milk as oil, forcing costly rules on farmers
Monica Scott The Grand Rapids Press
Update: State Senate calls for EPA to change rule classifying cow’s milk as oil
GRAND RAPIDS — Having watched the oil gushing in the Gulf of Mexico, dairy farmer Frank Konkel has a hard time seeing how spilled milk can be labeled the same kind of environmental hazard.
But the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is classifying milk as oil because it contains a percentage of animal fat, which is a non-petroleum oil.
The Hesperia farmer and others would be required to develop and implement spill prevention plans for milk storage tanks. The rules are set to take effect in November, though that date might be pushed back.
“That could get expensive quickly,” Konkel said. “We have a serious problem in the Gulf. Milk is a wholesome product that does not equate to spilling oil.”
But last week environmentalists disagreed at a Senate committee hearing on a resolution from Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, calling for the EPA to rescind its ruling.
“The federal Clean Water Act requirements were meant to protect the environment from petroleum-based oils, not milk,” he said. “I think it is an example of federal government gone amuck.”
But Gayle Miller, legislative director of Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, said agricultural pollution probably is the nation’s most severe chronic problem when it comes to water pollution.
“Milk is wholesome in a child’s body. It is devastating in a waterway,” Miller said. “The fact that it’s biodegradable is irrelevant if people die as a result of cryptosporidium, beaches close for E. coli and fish are killed.”
…
Also, the International Dairy Foods Association said it has learned the EPA will exempt the industry from the rule. But state lawmakers say they won’t let up until that is official.
…
“This is an example of where we have overreach by the department that defies common sense,” said Matt Smego, legislative counsel for Michigan Farm Bureau.
Smego said its an unnecessary regulatory burden that creates additional costs. He said it could cost $2,500 for a certified engineer to safeguard milk, plus more to construct secondary containment structures.
…
“The federal government has gotten out touch what’s going on in rural America,” said Konkel. “This is our livelihood.””
More at http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/06/epa_classifies_milk_as_oil_for.html
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They didn’t realize that Washington cocktail parties require milk to make Brie. Fondue has been known to use milk as well.
They are arresting farmers for selling raw milk and dumping the milk on the ground. The USDA seems to not know this is dangerous. All the molecules in milk trace back to the land, water and air.
A friend of mine is in safety at a chemical plant. He tells me if a container of ice cream is spilled on their land, they exceed allowable dioxins in parts per billion.
The crazies are trying to take over.
When New Zealand’s ETS starts next week, it will be the next step in similar over-regulation. When the agricultural emissions come under the system in a few years time, cows, sheep and horses will all be charged a flat rate for emissions of methane.
You can calculate it all here
http://www.carbonfarming.org.nz/calculators.php
We also have a “world-leading” research centre to look into genetically modifying clover so that cows don’t emit as much methane. This, apparently, will be good for our “clean-green” image.
So no crying over spilt milk?
Will they exempt nursing human moms? Or just cows? How about soy? Now that would be hitting below the belt to take the sacred soy milk the greenies advocate consuming and calling THAT a pollutant!!!!!
Well, this is just more sh*t from the same agency that has declared CO2 to be a pollutant.
The EPA is crying wolf over spilt milk.
================
Milk stains are difficult to remove. Perhaps we should ban the stuff altogether. Think of all those bovine farts that would be saved.
Musings from the Heartland
The US leadership in DC has taken a lurch to the left and the above is just one of hundreds of nonsense examples where we are becoming a more hostile place to do business. If we don’t correct our course and work on becoming a better business environment, millions of working Americans will suffer greatly.
Um…
So much to say… so certain others are either typing it scratching their heads like I am…
Onion? April fool’s? Nope… EPA gone mad. Drunk with power. Weird.
Water will be next. (Water intoxication, you know.) The only cure is abolishing the EPA.
We really need to clean house in Washington… it is populated by idiots hell bent on destroying our economy and way of life.
This is all part of the progressive agenda to slowly start having the government control everything just like Russia and China. If you think I’m nuts look at what they’re doing with the ACGW agenda to push taxes and CAP AND TRADE!
Here is another good example… The FTA/FDA are attacking nutritional supplement vendors and retail outlets.
I have two friends currently facing jail time because they are defying an illegal order set forth by the FTA. The FTA and FDA have been sanctioned by Congress numerous times for passing their own laws and ordinances even though they don’t have power to do so. Now they’ve gone one step farther, they’ve not only started passing their own laws, they have created a “judge” position under FTA Mandate that can prosecute cases at FTA Federal Court in Washington DC.
This is all under the guidelines of the Codex Alementarius because Clinton illegally signed us into the WTO. Anyone having signed into the FTO agrees to abide by the Codex. Sanctions can be assessed against the country by the WTO and the UN if they fail to abide by these regulations. Apparently the FDC has begun the next step and created this absolutely ridiculous regulation on milk next.
For anyone wanting further information on the FTC trial I mentioned you can go here
http://dc1freedom.com/
Wellllll, shoot. There goes all the milk products if the EPA doesn’t back down. What is wrong with these “people” (EPA, WWF, Green Pieces, Sierra Clowns, etc. ) ? Don’t they have anything better to do than screw around with other peoples lives? Like maybe GET A DAMN JOB DOING SOMETHING USEFUL!
Uh, this IS a joke, right? Hello . . .? This can’t be serious, right?
You shouldn’t cry over spilt milk.
I couldn’t resist…..
this would not be a problem if the cows formed a union
What about the new human mothers of the world? Is their milk – oil?
Warning to all scientists!
The indictments, issued on 3 June by the L’Aquila public prosecutor’s office, name six scientists as being investigated for manslaughter in relation to the earthquake.
The list comprises Enzo Boschi, president of the National Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) in Rome, the main institute in charge of seismic monitoring; Giulio Selvaggi, director of the National Earthquake Center based at INGV; Franco Barberi, a volcanologist at the University of ‘Roma Tre’; Claudio Eva, a professor of earth physics at the University of Genoa; Mauro Dolce, head of the seismic risk office in the Italian government’s Civil Protection Agency; and Gian Michele Calvi, director of the European Centre for Training and Research in Earthquake Engineering in Pavia. A government official, Bernardo De Bernardinis, deputy technical head of the Civil Protection Agency, is also under investigation.
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100622/full/465992a.html
Hmm! Astrology appears to be preferable.
Obviously the FDA needs to have the following added to milk carton labels.
” Spilling milk on beaches is a prosecutable offense due to the risk of spreading cryptosporidium and E. coli”.
Would that make you cry?
If the EPA is worried about water pollution I suggest they go after kids peeing in swimming pools.
Leave the farmers alone.
Several times we have opined that a post made by a psychiatrist should analyze such a big collection of really crazy assertions made, specially in the english speaking countries, around the issue of environment and the so called ecology.
You, more than us, third worlders, are living in really “interesting times”, which I don’t know if they happend before war or an armageddon, however it seems to be sure that there is an impending cataclism in your future.
Either you sack all these nuts off by kicking them in their asses or send all of them, safely tied in straightjackets to a big asylum or you are going to suffer the inevitable consequences of their insane behaviour.
It is so stupid that you won’t find such an issue written in any other language than in english, or under “weird news”.
A little bit here.
A little bit there…
Soon a whole lot everywhere.
Itz all about control.
Good Lord, I hope they don’t classify Scotch as a hazard. (Afterall, it IS flamable..)
If they do, we’ll probably have to bio-remediate as much of it as we can as fast as we can.
It would be our patriotic duty!
Max
I can’t wait till we all get gov. run health care!!!!