Posted August 22, 2014
The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) has asked a federal appellate court in Pennsylvania to reverse a lower court ruling that upheld pollution limits for the Chesapeake Bay watershed imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to an AFBF statement. Agri-Pulse also publishes the statement here, and Farm Futures published an article available here. A previous blog post on the watershed is available here.
The court’s decision may have effects on other states outside the restricted area and economic activity across the country. EPA has claimed that its Bay limits were developed in cooperation with the Bay states. However, AFBF said that “if EPA can set federal limits and deadlines in a TMDL, then it can do so with or without state cooperation: that is why 21 State Attorneys General have supported us as amici.”
The appellate court will decide whether EPA has the power to set only the “total” allowance pollutant load for waters, as suggested by AFBF, or the power to set individual limits for farming, construction, or other activities across the landscape, as claimed by the EPA, according to Farm Futures.
According to AFBF, “EPA could assign nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment limits for each farm, home site, or even each acre of undeveloped land across the countryside.”
Additionally, a ruling removing the challenged EPA source “limits or allocations from the TMDL would in no way impair the ability of any state to achieve those objectives. It would only allow them the freedom – as Congress intended – to set different allocations and deadlines, if they so choose,” according to an AFBF statement.
For more information on the Clean Water Act, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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