Industry representatives attending the Western Dairy Air Quality Symposium April 17 in Boise, Idaho, described a regulatory environment that’s about as predictable as the weather. The gathering, sponsored by the Western States Dairy Producers Trade Association, looked at how producers have been affected. A few examples:

• Dairy producers who participated in a voluntary air monitoring program in Washington state’s Yakima Valley from 2011-2012 hope that it doesn’t lead to a full-fledged government compliance program – but it could.

• In California, where agricultural air and water quality regulations are already firmly in place, the standards keep changing, participants said.

• Farmers in Arizona’s Maricopa County, who have been operating under best management practices (BMPs) administered by the state, are waiting to see whether the EPA will approve mandated changes.

Right now, producers are in limbo, said Jim Boyle, a fourth-generation Arizona resident whose family has been dairy farming in Maricopa County since 1920.

“We’re not sure what’s going to come next,” Boyle said.

Dairy producers in Boyle’s area first fell under air quality rules administered by Maricopa County. The program was mostly complaint-driven, with county inspectors repeatedly taking action against the same dairies, Boyle said.

“Other dairies that were farther out of town actually had no enforcement whatsoever,” he said.

A more recent BMP system regulated by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has been a big improvement, he said.

“In the county situation, we were essentially treated as an industrial source of dust, very similar to construction sites,” Boyle said.

Agriculture is only a small part of the air pollution problem in Arizona, yet it seems to get all the attention, he said.

In 2011, the EPA ruled that four “exceptional” air pollution events in 2008 were not naturally occurring dust storms and ordered the state DEQ to revise its program. Participants are now waiting to find out whether the revised plan is acceptable.

“We are continuing on with the program we had in place until we can determine what happens next,” Boyle said.

In Washington state, 12 dairy producers in the Yakima Valley allowed inspectors on their farms as part of a voluntary research project. It was a mostly positive and educational experience, producers and experts agreed.

“I really have to give (dairy producers) a lot of credit for stepping up and doing that,” said Nichole Embertson, a nutrient management and air quality specialist with the Whatcom Conservation District. “Overall, the dairy industry was very supportive of this,” she said.

Genny DeRuyter and her husband, Jake, participated in the pilot program. A few years earlier their dairy in the lower Yakima Valley had been the target of a lawsuit alleging violations of the Clean Air Act.

The couple went through a “hellish” two-year period defending their dairy against the accusations, Genny DeRuyter said. The environmental group that filed the suit later dropped it.

DeRuyter said she learned about the lawsuit when she started getting phone calls from the news media.

“I was blindsided. I had no idea. We hadn’t been served with any papers. I had no idea what a lawsuit under the Clean Air Act for methanol emissions was all about,” she said.

The dairy received a high rating (the equivalent of an “A”) in the pilot program without making any real changes in management practices, she said.

“I did feel some vindication at that point, that maybe we weren’t the criminals we had been portrayed to be in the media and by the activist group,” DeRuyter said.

She’s hopeful that the pilot program will not lead to full-fledged regulations.

The Yakima Regional Clean Air Agency is expected to decide in May whether the best management practices developed in the pilot program will become mandatory for all dairy producers in the area.

Farmers in California may be under more environmental scrutiny than any place else in the country. A 2003 state law removed the agricultural exemption for air quality monitoring and permitting.

Farmers in California must meet EPA air emissions standards now, and nowhere is that more difficult to do than in the San Joaquin Valley.

The San Joaquin Valley’s topography, inversions and lengthy air stagnation periods make it unique among the state’s 35 local air quality districts, said Sheraz Gill, supervising air quality engineer for the district.

“No other region faces the same challenges that we do in the San Joaquin Valley,” he said. Ozone and fine particulate matter are emissions of particular concern.

Making matters worse, the EPA keeps raising its standards.

“Every time we think we are getting close to attainment, then another standard comes and another standard comes,” Gill said.

Dealing with regulators has often been contentious, said Kevin Abernathy, director of regulatory affairs for the Milk Producers Council. Having a government inspector on your farm and knowing that non-compliance could result in a hefty fine is not a pleasant experience, he said.

“Those tickets, under the public health and safety code, can vary from $1,000 to $1 million per day per violation. If that doesn’t get your attention, nothing will,” Abernathy said.

The California dairy industry has slowly developed a working relationship with regulators, but it hasn’t been easy, he said.

“If you can stay in a voluntary or non-regulatory environment, you’re much better off,” Abernathy told producers.

There was also much discussion during the symposium about computer modeling. Developing a “virtual” or model farm requires a close collaboration between field scientists and computer modelers.

“It’s not realistic for us to measure emissions on every farm, which is why we’re suggesting the use of modeling,” said April Leytem, research soil scientist with the USDA-ARS Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Lab at Kimberly, Idaho.

Several models are already available and more are being developed all the time. As data collection methods get better, it will likely result in improved models that farmers can actually use.

Someday, farmers might be able to get automated alerts of potential air emissions problems right on their smartphones or mobile computers.

“I think that’s where we’re heading,” Leytem said.

The process-based computer models now in development are highly complex, involving thousands of equations, said Bill Salas, president of Applied GeoSolutions.

His company has developed a model using something Salas calls “archetype” input data sets.

So, for example, one archetype might be a dairy that makes land applications, has a mechanically ventilated barn and a settling pond in a particular location.

“Obviously all dairies are different, but we try to characterize the main drivers from our process model that influence differences in emissions,” Salas said.

“All the user would have to do is use that default, load it into the model and then maybe tweak changes in terms of their herd size and their feed regimen,” he said. PD

Wilkins is a freelance writer based in Twin Falls, Idaho.