Debate over appropriate regulation of on-farm fuel storage continues in Washington, D.C., and Scott Yager, environmental counsel for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, says animal feed ingredients could be added to the mix as well.
Yager says the EPA Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasures regulations were originally designed for major oil refineries but over the past several years were expanded to try to include agricultural producers. In 2014, Congress passed a law providing relief for farmers and ranchers from the SPCC regulations.
In June 2015, Yager says “the EPA published a study that raised further concerns that farmers and ranchers would be significantly impacted by the SPCC requirements, specifically by narrowing that farm exemption.”
In the past, it has been about regulating on-farm fuel tanks, but Yager says the EPA would like to broaden the regulations to include feed ingredient storage.
“When we’re talking about the definition of oil out of SPCC regs, it includes vast lists of different things that you probably wouldn’t think as oil,” he says. “Diesel fuel - sure, but something like tallow and animal fats that are used in feed probably doesn’t rise to the same level as storing oil or diesel on your land.
“But they still fall under these same requirements.”
Yager says he and other agricultural organizations are working closely with legislators to enact a reasonable and common sense approach to regulating farmers and ranchers.
“And that’s really what we’ve been trying to go after for a long time, is to protect the small and the medium size guys so they can continue to do what they need to do without having to work under this top-down approach of an EPA SPCC permit,” he says.
Listen to Yager talk more about protecting farmers and ranchers from SPCC regulations during the latest Beef Buzz.
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