NSAC Archives for the 'EPA' Category
Nutrient Pollution Still Harms Our Nation’s Rivers and Streams
Thursday, March 28th, 2013
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released for comment a draft report entitled National Rivers and Streams Assessment 2008-2009 (Draft NRSA). Comments on the Draft NRSA are due May 9, 2013. For more information on submitting comments, you can download the Federal Register notice for the comment period. The major findings of the Draft Read the Rest…
EPA Proposes Continued Focus on CAFO Compliance and Enforcement
Thursday, January 31st, 2013
Every three years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asks for public comment on its National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives for addressing important environmental problems. EPA selects the initiatives based on (1) the severity of the pollution problem; (2) a determination that noncompliance with an environmental law enforced by EPA is a significant issue; and Read the Rest…
EPA Update with Focus on Water Quality and Agriculture
Friday, November 16th, 2012
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued two announcements this week concerning coordination and partnership with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to protect the nation’s water quality. Clean Water Act Section 319 Nonpoint Source Pollution Guidelines Highlight USDA The EPA released a draft revision of Clean Water Act Section 319 Nonpoint Source Pollution (NPS) Program Read the Rest…
EPA’s Halloween Surprise – Another CAFO Comment Period
Friday, November 2nd, 2012
On October 31, 2012, the EPA announced yet another round of comments on the Clean Water Act regulation for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). This time, EPA has issued a notice that it is reviewing, under Section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act, the Clean Water Act CAFO regulation as issued in 2003. The Regulatory Read the Rest…
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: House Agriculture Bill Includes Anti-Farmer, Anti-Environment Riders
Friday, July 13th, 2012
The House Agriculture Committee farm bill that passed out of committee early yesterday morning includes a number of anti-regulatory riders. As we previously reported, the House mark included three riders before Committee markup began. The mark includes a provision that significantly weakens USDA’s ability to regulate the use of genetically engineered (GE) organisms. The provision Read the Rest…
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Draft House Farm Bill Drilldown
Friday, July 6th, 2012
On July 5, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Lucas (R-OK) and Ranking Member Peterson (D-MN) released their draft farm bill ahead of the House Agriculture Committee’s farm bill markup scheduled for next week beginning Wednesday, July 11. The bill generates $35 billion in savings by cutting over $16 billion from nutrition programs and more than $6 billion Read the Rest…
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Draft House Farm Bill Highlights
Friday, July 6th, 2012
On July 5, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Lucas (R-OK) and Ranking Member Peterson (D-MN) released their draft farm bill ahead of the House Agriculture Committee’s farm bill markup scheduled for next week beginning Wednesday, July 11. The bill generates $35 billion in savings by cutting over $16 billion from nutrition programs and more than $6 billion Read the Rest…
New NRCS National Water Quality Initiative Targets Impaired Watersheds
Thursday, May 10th, 2012
On Tuesday, May 8, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has launched a new National Water Quality Initiative with $33 million in FY2012 Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) funding. The Initiative is targeted at improving water quality in small watersheds impaired by agricultural use that are listed on a Read the Rest…
President’s Proposed EPA Budget and Agriculture
Friday, February 17th, 2012
President Obama’s FY2013 EPA budget proposal targets nutrient pollution, sedimentation and loss of shoreline vegetation as major water quality concerns, with a focus on agriculture as a major contributor to water degradation. To address this problem, the proposal directs USDA and EPA to increase their coordination using Clean Water Act Section 319 nonpoint source grants Read the Rest…
EPA Releases Water Pollution Data Tool
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
The EPA has just released the Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) Pollutant Loading Tool, an online database system that allows users to track polluters included in the database. Under the Clean Water Act, facilities with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits report discharge data to the EPA. The EPA has pooled and classified some of this Read the Rest…
