Manure is NOT hazardous waste!

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cowz

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Jan 10, 2007
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The EPA in their overzealous way have been pondering if cow manure should be classified as haz waste.  Keep an eye on this folks, this is an important issue!  See the article from Drover's Journal below:

Cattlemen applaud renewed efforts on superfund clarification
By Drovers news source (Friday, March 09, 2007)

U.S. cattle producers are applauding the introduction of legislation supported by 66 members of Congress today, to clarify that livestock manure is not a hazardous substance under Superfund laws.

In recent years, opponents of animal agriculture have suggested Superfund laws should be applied to manure from animal feeding, farming and ranching operations. (Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, CERCLA of 1980, and Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act, EPCRA of 1986.)

Eight Senators and 58 House leaders from both political parties are now saying that Congress never intended for America’s farms and ranches to be slapped with liabilities and penalties under the Superfund law.

“Superfund is about toxic waste sites and chemical spills, not livestock manure on farms and ranches,”says NCBA Director of Legislative Affairs Stacey Katseanes.  “The Superfund laws were created in the 1980s to provide for cleanup of toxic waste dumps and hazardous chemical spills, to force reporting of releases of hazardous chemicals and to enable emergency response.”

Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Representatives Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and Ralph Hall (R-Texas) are leading co-sponsors of the Senate and House bills, respectively, being introduced today.  These proposals will clarify that livestock manure is not classified as a hazardous waste under Superfund laws.

“It’s also important to note that manure management on U.S. farms and ranches is already heavily regulated under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and countless state laws,” says Katseanes.

In the 109th Congress, 228 members of Congress signed on to House and Senate bills to exempt livestock manure from Superfund.  But the bills didn’t see passage before the Congressional session ended in December.

“We’re grateful to all the members of Congress who are working to protect our farmers and ranchers from misuse of Superfund laws,” says John Queen, NCBA President and a cattle producer from North Carolina.  “America’s cattlemen work every day to protect the land, water and air.  I can’t imagine Congress would ever intend for our nation’s ranch lands to be treated as Superfund sites.”


 

red

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Jan 20, 2007
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LaRue, Ohio
Big thing here in our county is getting the Amish to clean up the roads after their horses.
Main guy pushing for it is someone who said he was run off the road by another driver, who was swerving to miss horse manure. He's not mad at the other driver but the Amish.
Good information cowz, we have to keep on top of such laws.

Red
 

cowz

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Jan 10, 2007
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red said:
Big thing here in our county is getting the Amish to clean up the roads after their horses.
Main guy pushing for it is someone who said he was run off the road by another driver, who was swerving to miss horse manure. He's not mad at the other driver but the Amish.
Good information cowz, we have to keep on top of such laws.

Red

That guy would never survive in feedlot country!  There is a reason alot of our pickups have a green haze where the wipers don't reach!! :)))
 

red

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Jan 20, 2007
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Location
LaRue, Ohio
What's worse is he's a former dairyman who now has a hog building. Has an axe to grind w/ the Amish.
Yep, I can still remember first learning to drive & a big livestock truck past me just as the whole load must have let it fly. Covered my little yellow Hornet. :eek:

Red
 

genes

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Jan 29, 2007
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That reminds me....Did you guys know that cars were supposed to be the answer to the "pollution problems" that big cities like New York and stuff were having with horse manure?  Hindsight 20/20  ::)

But at lesat it sounds like, by the article, that there is no way they are going to let it be classified as that.  Still scary that people would think if it like that.
 

Joe Boy

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Jan 31, 2007
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As a boy one of my first jobs of the spring was to shovel the chicken manure into an old trailer and haul it to where Granddaddy was running a two row lister.  We (Grandmother and I) shoveled the manure into the furrows and planted our potato crop.  I think that is why I have so many allergies today.

Then an old black man and I would shovel and pick the manure and hay from the barn and haul it to a sandy farm and you could see the results for 12 years or longer. 

When I managed a dairy we put as much as we could in giant liquid manure pits.  When they filled....3 of them 60 foot long, 8 foot wide and 7 food deep, we would pump the material into a slurry wagon and fertilize our fields.  We never had to spray for alfalfa weevil where we put the liquid manure, but the neighbors got a lot of practice rolling up their car windows and holding their breath while they drove by our farm.  We got teased a great deal when we went to church about polluting the air, etc. 

The dry lots were cleaned by a crew who cleaned the feed lots with 3 yard scoops and big spreader trucks.  Neighbors paid us enough per load that we did not have much cost in the clean up process.  I would love to have such an opportunity to have manure spread on my wheat fields and coastal grass today. 

The Indians taught the Europeans when they came to this country to fertilize with fish, and other items.  What a great practice of putting back in the soil what has gotten it's life from the soil.  Organic farming at it's best.  This is responsible farming.

While a boy, we had outhouses.  Now one of the major expenses of cities is the handling of human waste.  Years ago, it was simply dumped into the water ways.  That was toxic waste or hazardous waste.  With the purification process that is available today, some of the human waste is being used for fertilizer and guess what, the tomato seeds are not killed and will grow very well where ever the fertilizer is spread.  I have had sheep manure brought to my yard to fertilize it. 

Manure could be used for ethanol by cities, industry and for farm fertilizer to lesson the cost of farming.  Feed lot manure has too much salt in it for some areas of the country. 

I think that such people who have such little understanding of mother nature are FULL of what they seek to prevent.

 
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