Dairy farmers push EPA on spilled milk

WASHINGTON — Dairy farmers are gearing up for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's latest round of regulations to protect waterways from spills. But it's not oil the dairy lobby is fretting about — it's milk.

Under pressure from the main lobbying group for dairy producers, the EPA is working out an exemption for dairy farms so their bulk milk tanks do not fall under the Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure rules the agency has been drafting.

Otherwise, the National Milk Producers Federation reported, the butterfat in milk would be considered oil under the Clean Water Act and farmers will have to create spill-response plans in case of accidents.

"Milk should not fit in the same category as oil and fuels," said Jamie S. Jonker, the NMPF's vice president for scientific and regulatory affairs.

The NMPF, which represents farmers' bargaining cooperatives, wrote to the EPA earlier this month to reiterate its view that bulk milk tanks should be exempt and to praise the EPA for working toward that goal.

Final regulations should be ready early next year, the EPA reported. In addition to the bulk milk tank exemption, the agency agreed to extend until next year a deadline for farms to comply with provisions in the law that apply to fuel and oil.

"EPA is moving forward to take final action on that proposed rulemaking as expeditiously as possible and we hope to have that process completed by early 2011," EPA Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus wrote June 9 to the NMPF.

The law applies to farms with at least 1,320 gallons of oil-product storage, with single tanks of 55 gallons or more. A typical north country dairy farm stores a day or two's worth of milk in bulk tanks, easily meeting that threshold.

Farms that fall under the law must have a spill prevention plan, and farms with 10,000 gallons or more of total storage and single tanks with 5,000 gallons or more — a much larger farm by Northern New York standards — must have a plan certified by a professional engineer.

The prospect of regulating milk as an environmental danger brought outcries from lawmakers and farm groups, but in large enough amounts, milk can threaten aquatic wildlife. A news report in England in 2002 cited a crashed milk truck as a serious threat to a stream and lake in Staffordshire because milk was pouring into the water.

Thousands of fish were at risk, environmental officials said, because milk is a "highly polluting substance" that robs oxygen from the water, an environmental official said at the time.

Legislation to force the EPA to exempt milk is pending in Congress and would require the agency to do so within 30 days of the legislation's enactment. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., is the main sponsor.

"We see on television every day the devastation being wrought in the Gulf of Mexico by the ongoing oil spill. It is simply ridiculous for the EPA to suggest that milk presents the same danger to our environment as oil," Ms. Miller said in a news release.

Her legislation has 14 cosponsors, but none from New York. No companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.

Although the EPA has faced criticism for classifying milk as oil, the NMPF noted that the agency first proposed exempting bulk milk tanks in January 2009.