A recent decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold an EPA’s preliminary injunction against a group of Yakima Valley dairies means those dairies must continue to test for nitrate contamination.  That recent ruling follows an appeal by the dairy farms against a previous court order mandating the expanded tests.

 

Larry Stap, President of Save Family Farming, said it appears no one within the  judicial system will stand up to EPA’s Region 10 office in its “ongoing vendetta against a few dairy farms in the Lower Yakima Valley”.  He noted that the previous Administration did not appear to care about farms, and he is hopeful that attitude will change with the Trump Administration.

 

“We still have our local, state agencies that are kind of out control you might say yet to that we would like to see a lot more cooperation with.  But, on the federal level, EPA Region 10 needs an administrator that's got some teeth in it, that's willing to say, ‘OK, you guys, even though you've been here for twenty 30-40 years as employees, this is what the administration wants and this is what we're going to do’.”

 

Stap said it’s unclear to him why EPA Region 10 continually attacks the Washington farming community.

 

“People complain about the price of this, and the price of that, as far as their food is concerned. And yet the regulatory world that keeps getting dumped on us, whether it's environmental, or labor, or whatever, they don't seem to make the connection that they're destroying our food supply.  And our food supply is crucial to the survival of a nation.”

 

Stap added many facts contradict EPA’s “numerous false claims about dairies and groundwater nitrate contamination”.

 

 

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail glenn.vaagen@townsquaremedia.com 

More From PNW Ag Network