IMPACTS OF EPA DAIRY WASTE REGULATIONS ON FARM PROFITABILITY

Table 1. Delegated and Nondelegated EPA Regulated States» by EPA Region.

^aThe Virgin Islands are delegated.

^bPuerto Rico is nondelegated.

^cNone of the Pacific Islands in Region IX are delegated.

is that its regulations are at least as stringent as the federal EPA
standards. The twelve states and the District of Columbia that do not
have delegated authority experience a considerably higher level of
EPA supervision and involvement even though they may have a
state level counterpart to the federal EPA. Texas and Florida are
both поп-delegated states which, to a degree, contributed to these
states becoming “test cases” in the establishment of EPA dairy
waste regulatory policy.

The authors completed a survey of state environmental protection
agencies to determine their regulatory strategy regarding the dairy
waste issue. This survey found substantial variation among states in
enforcement strategy regarding dairy waste. Some states inter-
preted the spirit of the EPA policy as being one of no discharge ex-
cept under extreme circumstances. Thus, Minnesota, in an effort to
protect its 10,000 lakes from pollution, has adopted a seven-cow
threshold for the receipt of permits by dairy farmers. On the other
hand, Wisconsin, Iowa and Vermont interpret the EPA 700-cow pol-
icy literally. That is, with no dairies having more than 700 cows at
the time of the survey, they had issued no permits.

The EPA regional offices indicated to the authors an intent to
move in the direction of using the evolving Region VI policy as the
standard for controlling dairy waste. This would require all dairies
to develop a waste management plan that meets the twenty-five-
year-storm-event criterion. In addition, dairies would be required to
keep records on handling and discharging dairy wastes.

Costs of Meeting EPA Regulations in Texas and Florida

Coincidentally, the AFPC representative dairy farms in Texas and
Florida were developed before the EPA policies on dairy waste
management were implemented. Recently, these farms have been
updated after the farms had been renovated and retrofitted to meet
the new EPA standards. This provided a perfect environment for

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