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EMC declines to adopt proposed monitoring rule
Story Date: 7/27/2011
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Source: N.C. PORK COUNCIL, 7/26/11
The N.C. Environmental Management Commission (EMC) declined to adopt a controversial proposed rule that was initiated in 2007 by a rule-making petition filed by the Waterkeepers Alliance. The proposed rule would have required farmers to take water samples at all permitted animal operations.
The decision was based on the recommendations of a three-member panel of EMC members assigned to the case. The panel of hearing officers held public hearings across the state and reviewed hundreds of comments from hearing from both opponents and proponents of the proposed rule.
After the hearings, the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources directed the Division of Water Quality (DWQ) to look into conducting a study of the proposed rule. In May of this year, DWQ and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) finalized a contract to perform a multi-year study of possible surface water impacts related to animal operations.
At the recent EMC meeting, the three member panel of hearing officers said that they did not believe that the proposed monitoring rules would yield useful data that would provide a corresponding benefit to water quality and recommended that the full EMC not adopt the proposed rules. The panel also recommended that the EMC review the results of that study underway by DWQ and the USGS and that if the results of the study should indicate a need for monitoring, rules could again be considered. Further, if considered, the results of the study should be used to determine the type and frequency of monitoring to be performed.
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