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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Al Gores police report
http://www.flashalertnewswire.net/images/news/2010-06/3056/36280/Gore_reports.pdf
@Brad
You might want to target your network admin skillz toward medical practices. What with the promise of a whole new level of government red tape (Obamacare) on an industry that’s already struggling to get and keep their networks and records compliant with the Patient Privacy Act (HIPPA) it promises to be a continuing goldmine for bit wranglers such as yourself.
Sorry to everyone else about my off-topic comment.
Pat Moffit,
You probably got that info from the Dirtiest jobs episode with Mike Rowe where there was a cow with a window in it’s side and Mike shoved his hand with a camera inside the hole into the Rumen didn’t you? 🙂
Welcome to the latest socialist utopia where good is bad and bad is whatever they say it is. Like milk for instance.
Come November American better get it right or we’re all in deep faeces.
Got Eco-fascism?
Hope people see that the conspiracy theories about carbon regulation are actually fact. It’s about control, and eventually, depopulation. There are some crazy pricks running this Earth.
What a terrible title to this article!
Better: EPA TO CLASSIFY MILK AS OIL, Wake Up America
And just what constitutes a “truly large” spill of milk? 🙁
They trying to tell us here in New Zealand on the tv news that we make the same amount co2 when making a cup of coffee with milk as it takes to drive 160km in your car.
H.L. Mencken: “The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-face for the urge to rule it.”
Good god! And I thought that the EU produced the most ludicrous regulations & laws in the world!
I know this isn’t the popular thing to do, but how about having a look at the actual regulation than reading some FUD news article: http://www.epa.gov/emergencies/docs/oil/spcc/spccfarms.pdf
Sorry for the double post – here’s what this law applies to:
SPCC applies to a farm which:
• • •
Stores, transfers, uses, or consumes oil or oil products, such as diesel fuel, gasoline, lube oil, hydraulic oil, adjuvant oil, crop oil, vegetable oil, or animal fat; and
Stores more than 1,320 US gallons in aboveground containers or more than 42,000 US gallons in completely buried containers; and
Could reasonably be expected to discharge oil to waters of the US or adjoining shorelines, such as interstate waters, intrastate lakes, rivers, and streams.
See above link for more details.
Farm effluent, particularly from large dairy herds, is quite nasty and dangerous stuff if released into waterways, but milk?
There is a German uber-ecofascist in New Zealand at this moment making all sorts of shrill and silly claims about the NZ environment ‘rotting from underneath’ due to rainwater that falls on farmlands running into streams and rivers.
Also in the Current Telegraph newspaper (UK), an article about the new threat from acid rain created by vehicle exhaust gasses. The usual airhead/alarmist puffery from their Science Editor, Louise Gray, who attributes this to Scientific American, but no actual scientific proof is quoted. Lots of ‘could be’ and ‘maybe’ but not much else.
I subscribed to SA in years past, but would not waste the money these days.
“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.”
Has there been an incident as described above? How long have dairy herds been around because something like the incidents above should have happened by now? Anyway, statements like ‘It is devastating in a waterway’ is emotive and annoying because it doesn’t say how much. The implication is any amount. In this case the rule maker/s appear to have no scientific knowledge or even an understanding of the dairy industry.
How might such rule makers have dealt with Benjamin Jesty who in 1774 infected healthy individuals with the CowPox virus so as to protect them from the deadly Small Pox virus?
“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.”
Cryptosporidium is already *in* every waterway east of the Rocky Mountains, courtesy of all those cute little beavers pooping in the streams — and you can’t get it from drinking untreated milk, Mizz Miller, and you don’t die from it. Beaches close from contamination by *fecal* coliform bacteria, and about the only way you can kill a fish by pouring milk into its habitat is to heat the milk to 90C and then apply it directly on top of the fish.
Now have a nice glass of warm milk and go sit quietly in the corner while the adults mock the EPA…
Ale Gorney says
BS The french farmers poured 1000’s of litres all over the fields, the roads, around supermarkets and close to goverment buildings. Unfortunately, none of them died. However, if you pour milk or any other liquid over polluted ground and other creatures drink then they might possibly die but not from the milk.
Pat Moffitt says:
June 24, 2010 at 8:58 pm
‘Ian H – you are absolutely correct from an environmental perspective. However, EPA is a politically motivated agency and they just wouldn’t mobilize on this level using Sierra Club as a spokesmen if there was not something more going on.’
Henry Kissinger declared in the 1970’s, ‘If you control the oil you control the country;(which is being done not only with the input side, but with the output of a byproduct, CO2) if you control food, you control the population;(which is being done not only with the input side, but with the output of a byproduct, milk).
Again I ask What freedom are you not willing to lose before you take a stand? We need to demand that government agenices like the EPA back up their statement with facts not with “I think this could happen”. We need a lot more sunshine in Washington.
Ian H.
It hasn’t happened recently as all the large milk processing plants where I live now have adequate contingency plans including secondary containment and on site treatment facilities.
That’s kind of the crux of the problem, isn’t it? – it hasn’t happened recently. It’s the precautionary principle run amok. We haven’t had a nuclear leak recently either, BUT it could happen and cause an environmental disaster. So, we must need more regulations. I’m afraid that because of the gulf oil spill, we’re going to see more and more ludicrous stories like this.
Do you just make this stuff up as you go? Show us one piece of evidence of this ever being enforced or costing farmers anything.
R. de Haan says:
June 24, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Really all white stuffs should be banned, specially in powder form: That powder makes them not to see themselves as they really are: Nothing.
“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.”
So, the rule is milk as a pollutant. The largest possible polluter is already exempted. Regulation failure 101.
I just want to thank everyone who posted, I have had some of the best laughs in ages:-)
and after reading the article I sure needed that!
koi,uranium eggs, tallbloke, and 90C milk…too good.:-)
moooooo
But Gayle Miller, legislative director of Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, said, “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.”
They will not eradicate the threat of cryptosporidium by placing regulations on unpasteurized milk spills. And, I suspect most dairy farmers do not routinely engage in milk dumping, whether it is illegal or not.
There are valid reasons for preventing feces from domestic animals to enter the water supply. That said, how do we control all the pesky wild animals and birds pooping in our lakes and rivers?
Most people understand that ‘natural’ water must be boiled to be sterilized for drinking. They will not avoid public beaches for fear of contracting diarrhea. I can think of a few other forms of agricultural pollution that deserve more attention: pesticide and fertilizer usage.