Mortenson testified in support of the Fair Agricultural Reporting Method (FARM) Act, which would prevent the federal government from regulating nearly 200,000 animal agricultural operations as if they were toxic Superfund sites.
The FARM Act is a response to the D.C. District Court ruling that overturned the EPA’s 2008 exemption for farms and other animal ag operations from the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) in April of 2017, giving a deadline of May 1, 2018, before animal ag operations would have to start reporting livestock emissions.
Mortenson, who runs 1,295 head of cattle on 19,000 acres, is a prime example of the nearly 200,000 farms and ranches that would, after the May 1 enforcement deadline, be required to report livestock emissions to the EPA.
In his testimony, Mortenson focused on the issue of not taking concentration of emissions into account. “It makes no difference whether my cattle are spread over 10 acres or 10,000 acres,” he said in his testimony. “If my 1,295 cattle emit over 100 pounds of ammonia or hydrogen sulfide per day, I am required to report their emissions to the U.S. Coast Guard and EPA.
“Reporting is no small task,” he added. “It is a three-step process that spans, at minimum, one year.”
Mortenson pled for swift action from lawmakers. “Only Congress can ensure that the agricultural community is protected from this reporting burden, the reliability of our emergency response coordination is maintained, and the integrity of the Superfund law is not degraded,” he said during his testimony. “The key to environmental sustainability is working together with stakeholders, not fighting us.”
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who chaired the subcommittee, was pleased with the results of the hearing. “Mortenson did a great job today. He shared in very simple, straightforward terms just exactly what this law, if it’s interpreted the way the courts say it’s supposed to be interpreted, would require his farming and ranching operation to do,” he said in an National Cattleman’s Beef Association Beltway Beef podcast. “To have his testimony straightforward about his concerns about the environment, what he does and the need to properly manage manure and the reason why he properly manages it, I think, was very critical in moving this legislation forward.”
Rounds said the challenge from this point is to get enough people on board to get it attached to a piece of legislation that could move forward relatively quickly. “We’ve got about a month left yet in which we’ve got to do something before the court would make the EPA try to enforce this,” he said. “What we’d like to do is to fix what’s been in effect all along, and that is that farmers and ranchers shouldn’t have to go to the federal government and report releases of manure. That’s common sense.”
Rounds said that after the discussion during the hearing, the Senate committee can most likely proceed with making any changes they find necessary and move forward with the bill. 
-
Carrie Veselka
- Associate Editor
- Progressive Dairyman
- Email Carrie Veselka
