The American Farm Bureau Federation has asked a federal appeals court to reverse a court ruling regarding pollution limits in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The ruling allows EPA to power to set total allowable pollutant load for waters and set limits for farming. Nebraska Farm Bureau’s National Affairs Coordinator Jordan Dux says the ruling has dire implications for Northern plains producers and those in the Mississippi and Missouri river basins.
Dux says the problem with the Chesapeake Bay ruling is that it allows federal agencies to take away local control and set standards that are questionable and don’t follow sound science.
Farm Bureau officials argue that EPA has been given excess powers that allow them in the Chesapeake Bay to assign nitrogen, phosphorous and sediment limits for each farm, home site or acre of undeveloped land.