Raspberries to that Sioux Falls paper for royally screwing up the headline on its story about Kristi Noem's bogus fear-mongering on non-existent dust regulations. "Farmers Fear Tighter Dust Rules," shouts the paper. The bulk of the article then makes absolutely clear that...
- there are not and will not be such regulations (Madville Times readers know this);
- even if we applied dust regulations from other parts of the country, South Dakota's dust levels would be well under their thresholds;
- where dust regulations have been imposed, they serve important public health functions.
The article begins with an Arizona farmer who grumbles that he can't go till his 7000 acres on windy days. He's more concerned about the difficulty that the regulations cause for his business than the difficulty his dust causes for Phoenix, where dust is a major cause of air pollution. Ah, community spirit....
The article then douses the GOP with this cold bucket of reality:
The Environmental Protection Agency hasn't proposed any change in its standards, nor are communities in the Midwest in danger of violating standards. But the dust issue has become a major feature in GOP efforts to blame the nation's economic stagnation on excessive government regulations. Democrats say it's a phony issue being used to influence rural voters.
EPA spokeswoman Betsaida Alcantara said the agency still is reviewing its dust regulations but has "no plans to put stricter standards in place" [Philip Brasher, "Farmers Fear Tighter Dust Rules," that Sioux Falls paper, 2011.09.18].
Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa says "it makes no sense to regulate the dust" coming from farm operations. But Brasher notes that there is darn good reason for regulating dust, such as preventing asthma, bronchitis, and heart attacks. (He leaves out cancer from erionite gravel road dust.)
Brasher does note that here on the prairie, we remain safely below the EPA guidelines for dust:
The Midwest is nowhere near reaching the limit, which for coarse particulate matter is 150 micrometers per cubic meter of air. An area is allowed to exceed that once in a three-year period. Average annual maximum levels at locations such as Sioux City, Iowa, and Brookings typically vary from 60 to 80 micrograms, though dust pollution in the Brookings area spiked at 120 micrograms in 2008, according to EPA data [Brasher, 2011.09.18].
So, to review: Dust impacts health, and we should expect farms to minimize their pollution and damage to public health just like every other industry. Current EPA particulate standards don't impact South Dakota farm operations. The EPA isn't changing those standards.
The headline shouldn't be "Farmers Fear Tighter Dust Rules." It should be "Republicans Trick Farmers into Fear; EPA Not Tightening Dust Rules."
But the Sioux Falls headline shows that the Repulicans are winning the propaganda war. Kristi Noem and her colleagues manufacture fear, and that bogus fear becomes the lead rather than policy, public health, and honesty about Kristi Noem's snow job.
Remarkable PR Miss: The bogus dust bill is Kristi Noem's pet legislation, but she doesn't get a quote in this story. The Congresswoman's staffers must have lost the interview request from Brasher under the Cowgirl Today subscription renewal forms. Either that, or when Brasher edited every instance of really, truly, definitely, and other filler words from Noem's responses, he found she hadn't really said anything.
My guess is that they were tired of Noem talking without ever saying anything.
Argus is a joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a lame headline.
"Kristi Noem and her colleagues manufacture fear, and that bogus fear becomes the lead rather than policy, public health, and honesty about Kristi Noem’s snow job."
The fear mongering would include her Democratic colleagues (Global Warming). Now were better understand Fleming's concern for the paranoia agenda.
Noem is a dunce, but what excuse do South Dakota newpapers have?
The only place in South Dakota that has had problems with meeting the particulate air quality standard is Pennington County. EPA, the State of South Dakota, Pennington County and the City of Rapid City have been dealing with particulate air pollution problems for decades. This has been a long-standing problem, and the fact that news outlets would buy Noem's nonsense indicates a real lack of knowledge about the state. How can these people be writing for a state paper?
The main contributors to the particulate pollution problem in Rapid City have been identified. Quarry operations, the cement plant and coal plant operations, wood burning during the winter, the use of sand on roads during the winter, construction activities, unpaved alleys and parking lots, controlled burns and wildfires have been identified as the main sources of particulates. Most of the problems with potential violations of air quality regulations occur on windy days or on days when there are inversions. There are no real impacts from agriculture, other than some burning. Since these usually occur on non-windy days and not during inversions, these impacts have virtually no impact on Rapid City Air.
The Rapid City Air Board from time to time chimes in with anti-regulatory resolutions. The board is controlled by the businesses that cause the problem, so they're basically useless as a regulatory body. That probably explains why Rapid City's air has been dirty for forty years.
The ARGUS devoted a lot of space to nonsense and a few lines that indicated it was nonsense. That is the foolish balance between sense and nonsense that is the hobgoblin of small journalistic minds.
Is this an attempt to get the Midwest clamoring to repeal the Clean Air Act? This legislation also required cleaner burning additives for gasoline and laid the ground work for the early ethanol plants in the region as I understand it.
Aaron, I think Rep. Noem would happily back that repeal, not realizing the consequences. If it's regulation, it's bad -- that's as deeply as Noem can think.
And Donald -- ugh! We need some regulators who actually seek to protect the general welfare, not just soothe themselves with statements of their own anti-government alarmism while protecting profits gained at the expense of public health.
Noem is stupid because she trusts the people instead of trusting the corporate socilists who profit from the monoplistic economies they create with their government regulations. OK Left, take a breath and attack "capitalism", the beast you all help create. Stupid?
The dust regulation is an all too familiar example of Obama bureaucratic regulators run amok. These agencies need to be STARVED, if not eliminated.
Read the article again, Patrick. The dust regulations are not an exampleof regulators run amok. Obama's regulators aren't changing the dust regulations. The dust regulations ove which you and Noem are sowing fear don't exist. The EPA's current clean air regulations save lives and save money. Starving the EPA is sociopathic.