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.”
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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.
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“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.
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“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
“Vuk etc. says:
June 24, 2010 at 2:45 pm
From hence forth Milky Way will be known only as Galaxy.”
Now what do you think do the syllables “Gala-” mean in greek…?
Wait, I may have been hasty. Has the EPA in its wisdom just found a renewable replacement for offshore oil? Oil from cows! Who’da thunk it?
I think I’ll go out to the henhouse and see if my chickens have laid any uranium…
“Writing in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution the team explains how bacteria in chicken manure break down 50 percent more crude oil than soil lacking the guano.”
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/ip-fsa030309.php
“It is an unlikely application, but researchers in China have discovered that chicken manure can be used to biodegrade crude oil in contaminated soil. Writing in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution the team explains how bacteria in chicken manure break down 50% more crude oil than soil lacking the guano. “
This in from the telegrapph…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/7852300/Al-Gore-behaved-like-crazed-sex-poodle-with-masseuse.html
A masseuse has accused Al Gore, the former US vice president, of sexually assaulting her at an Oregon hotel during a global warming lecture tour in 2006.
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/s-510-is-hissing-in-the-gress/
S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010, may be the most dangerous bill in the history of the US. It is to our food what the bailout was to our economy, only we can live without money.
If accepted [S 510] would preclude the public’s right to grow, own, trade, transport, share, feed and eat each and every food that nature makes. It will become the most offensive authority against the cultivation, trade and consumption of food and agricultural products of one’s choice. It will be unconstitutional and contrary to natural law or, if you like, the will of God.” ~Dr. Shiv Chopra, Canada Health whistleblower
I’m not American so forgive me for not understanding what’s going on, but is the EPA and the Obama Administration as nutty as it seems to be? Or, is this media spin? It’s sounds like they’re both doing their best to destabilize America. What’s going on?
Many of these eco-religious lunatics are vegetarians and “vegans” (extremist vegetarians). They would take any excuse to burden dairy.
No fuel, no milk, no music, no civilization.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3027440/Exclusive-Paul-McCartney-chat.html
The EPA takes about everthing out of the sierra Club and a couple others as something to react to. At some point the extremists will get throttled back. The animal waste from wild animals exists and the rotting of all kinds of plants aid in the growth of bacteria. This bacteria exists before the milk is dumped and the milk causes nothing that is both unique, new and harmful. The “Club” doesn’t know that we don’t drink un purified water? If we take particulate from coal generation plants and run it thru water we get material that will grow algae which is high in oil and can be consumed after refining as a combustible.
One little court ruling in Massachusetts just went right to their heads; now they have a Constitutional mandate to preserve and protect us – from air and now food.
The EPA is an unelected, unaccountable, unnecessary, unlawful organization which must be abolished. Then, there is probably a Cheese Czar slinking around the backrooms somewhere, making deals with national organizations, which also must be brought, like a destructive termite, into the light of day. That is how this Administration operates.
The Federal Government is out of touch and out of control.
Paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson: A little revolution is needed every now and then to refresh freedom.
Let’s start with the EPA!
Panic is spreading;
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/breaking-green-energy-company-threatens-economics-professor-with-package-of-dismantled-bomb-parts/?singlepage=true
JB Williamson says:
June 24, 2010 at 2:56 pm
That Al Gore story is an udder waste of time as we need rather to grab the bull by the horns and mind our pints and quarts, not HIDE in trivialities, but be vigilant ruminants of the truth, lest we be cowed by this illegal regulation of lactation.
@Henry chance
‘Soybeans are processed for bio fuels. At 20% oil content, why are they not blowing a gasket over spilt beans?’
Disregarding the rhetorical nature, but three billion, quite financially string, asian people like soy. It’s the same for rice. Or it’s like the same for wheat for westerners, one has to understand it’s only about half wheat needy people though compared to all the asians. Huh, I wonder what the other 1.5 billion or so people live on? Those would be the ones in serious lack of oil, gas, or hydro and nuclear.
If my girlfriend gives birth do i need an oil spill plan now?
Only kidding – i’m not even in the U.S.A. 😉
Wow, it sounds as though you are going the same way as the the daft rules emanating from the EU, expanded upon by all our various government departments in the UK. Welcome aboard!
My son drinks milk but his favourite, favourite milk is “green” milk, i.e. untreated milk straight from the cow. Hard to get unless you have a dairy farmer friend but it is delicious. I’ll tell him to go into hiding in case he breaks some law for harbouring strange bugs in his body.
Isn’t the western world going completely bonkers? That’s not a question, actually, but a statement of fact.
Terry Pratchett was once a press officer for the UK’s Central Electricity Generating Board. One of his projects was a comparison of the relative risk of a crash involving a milk tanker or one involving a nuclear materials tanker.
EPA’s new ozone regs are the one to watch– the action levels are below the natural background for many areas. (the largest source of ozone presursors are from trees and soil bacteria.) And few seem to appreciate the insanity of EPA regulating outside air pollution to ever lower concentrations but pushing weatherization which increases the much more dangerous, concentrated and relevant indoor pollution by orders of magnitude.
And it seems that the problem with the skimmers/separators in the Gulf is not the Jones Act but EPAs refusal to grant permits allowing the discharge of the separated water.
Zeke the Sneak says:
June 24, 2010 at 3:31 pm
That Al Gore story is an udder waste of time as we need rather to grab the bull by the horns and mind our pints and quarts, not HIDE in trivialities, but be vigilant ruminants of the truth, lest we be cowed by this illegal regulation of lactation.
It behooves us to heiffer sensible approach. What chew cud imagine is a situation where it’s udderly freisian outside. A mixture of spilt milk and bovine excrement might release methane clathrates. The explosion risk needs to be calf-ully assessed. We need a steer-ing committee, and some large research grants. The steaks are high.
Oh, what a dilemma. Whales must be banned, as well. Surely it must be true that nursing whale calves spill just a bit into the ocean.
And whale milk contains more than 40 percent fat.
Stupid is as stupid does.
After labeling plant food (CO2) a pollutant and establishing their incredible stupidity it was only a matter of time until human foods started getting the pollutant label. I thought for sure though that bacon would come before milk. Stupidity squared!
Hey, WindRider, Gore was in heat. It’s a rarely observed example of the Reverse Gore Effect.
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Maybe this needs a sustainable riposte :-). The legend of Dave Cannon lives on, despite the sad ending five years later.
Good grief, the inmates truly are running the asylum. Wishful thinking, but I can’t wait for the day then the Sierra Club faces charges of sedition.
(am I the only ‘green’ who frequents here that thinks our ‘movement’ is in dire need of a courtesy flush…?)
One word: nullification. The affected states need to tell the EPA that it has no jurisdiction there, and take them to court. If the states don’t start interposing between the Feds and the People, there aren’t going to be any people left. The EPA’s motto may as well be, “Die, suckers!”