EPA kicking up dust again (Editorial, July 27)

So, you’re driving down the farm lane and the pickup is kicking up a lot of dust.
That could get you in a peck of trouble if the Environmental Protection Agency has its way.
The EPA folks are kicking around a proposal to tighten the agency’s criteria for dust in the air.
In its ongoing review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, the EPA laid the foundation for an unprecedented regulation of dust.
According to the EPA’s Second Draft Policy Assessment for Particulate Matter (PM), issued earlier this month, EPA may consider regulating coarse PM at levels as low as 65-85 µg/m3.
That stands for microgram per cubic meter, a unit of measurement of the amount of chemical vapors, fumes or dust in the ambient air.
Among the farm organizations expressing alarm at that possibility is the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
Because of the high dust levels found in arid climates, many critical western industries have a difficult time meeting the current standard of 150 µg/m3.
In some of these areas, “no-till” days have already been proposed for agriculture, severely hindering farmers’ ability to maintain productive operations.
“It would be virtually impossible for many critical U.S. industries to comply with this standard, even with use of best-management practices to control dust,” said Tamara Thies, NCBA chief environmental counsel. “All of us certainly want healthy air for our communities, but this is nothing more than the everyday dust kicked up by a car driving down a dirt road, and it has long been found to be of no health concern at ambient levels.”
The fact is, Theis noted, farmers could be fined for everyday activities like driving a tractor down a dirt road or tilling a field,
If EPA regulates dust at the level of 65-85 µg/m3, areas across the country would be classified as “nonattainment,” forcing states to impose extreme dust-control requirements on businesses across the board.
The federal government’s appetite for regulation apparently knows no end.
The NCBA argues that there has never been clear scientific evidence that even the current standard was necessary to protect against adverse public health effects.
To expect farmers to pave the land or to keep the tractor in the shed on a dry day, is absurd.
One would think someone somewhere in the upper reaches of the EPA would come to his or her senses.