Contact Senators Harkin and Grassley--ask them to oppose the Craig Factory Farm Rider. The Craig rider threatens public health in rural communities! We only have a short time to oppose this amendment and get it out of the bill before the FY05 Omnibus Appropriations goes to the House and Senate floor for a vote, probably today for the House and Saturday for the Senate. From ICCI: Senator Craig from Idaho wants to sneak through an amendment which will exempt Factory Farms from requirements to report toxic chemical releases, such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. *This amendment is to the full appropriations bill on the Senate Floor. Senator Craig is trying to sneak a rider into a must-pass spending bill that would let factory farms off the hook and deny rural communities access to this critical information. If this amendment passes, it could hurt our efforts in Iowa, and those in other states, to hold factory farms accountable for the air pollution they create. We need to continue to contact Senator Harkin and Senator Grassley and let them know that this is a bad amendment and they need to oppose it! Contact Senators Harkin and Grassley today and ask them to oppose the Craig amendment! Tell them that you oppose exempting factory farms from toxic chemical reporting and push for the removal of this rider from the spending bill. In Iowa Contact: Senator Grassley at (202) 224-3744 Web Form: grassley.senate.gov/webform.htm Senator Harkin at (202) 224-3254 Web Form: harkin.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm _____ From the Center for Rural Affairs: We have been informed that Senator Larry Craig (ID) has been allowed to include an amendment in the FY05 Omnibus Appropriations bill that would exempt CAFOs (and other major agricultural emitters of pollution) from the requirement under the Superfund law and the Community-Right-to-Know-Act to report hazardous emissions and substances from their operations. The reporting requirements apply only to total confinement operations (not to open feedlots) and for dairy cows. These reporting requirements affect large operations (e.g. over 1,000 dairy cows, large poultry confinement operations, etc.). Note that these reporting requirements are public health and emergency response measures that apply to other businesses emitting hazardous substances in the community. We only have a short time to oppose this amendment and get it out of the bill before the FY05 Omnibus Appropriations goes to the House and Senate floor for a vote, probably today for the House and Saturday for the Senate. Senator Diane Feinstein (CA) is taking the lead in opposing this amendment. Below is the text of a sign-on letter that several family farm organizations signed and sent to the VA-HUD-Independent Agencies (EPA) appropriations subcommittee in September when Senator Craig attempted to attach the amendment to an appropriations bill. This will help give you some background on the issue. We are writing to express our strong opposition to an amendment that we Senator Craig [has offered] to exempt agricultural operations from existing laws that require reporting of releases of toxic chemicals. The amendment would change the definition of "release" in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation Liability Act (CERCLA, or Superfund) and the definition of "hazardous chemical" in the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA). Large livestock operations, confining thousands and even hundreds of thousands of animals, routinely emit large quantities of hazardous chemicals such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide into the environment and nearby communities. Chemical releases from these operations are anything but diffuse and low-level. Because of the concentration of large numbers of animals and their waste, chemical releases are also concentrated. The livestock sector is the largest ammonia contributor nationwide and produces roughly 73% of all ammonia emissions. Airborne ammonia can be a significant source of nitrogen pollution to streams. U.S. EPA has documented emissions of more than 700 tons per year of fine dust particles (PM10) from a single egg production operation in Ohio. This same facility emitted 4,400 pounds of ammonia per day, roughly 44 times EPA's reporting threshold for this hazardous substance. Evidence continues to mount correlating Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) air emissions with detrimental public health and environmental impacts. Peer-reviewed studies show air emissions from a 6,000-head hog operation in North Carolina caused increased headaches, sore throats, excessive coughing, diarrhea, burning eyes, and reduced quality of life for nearby residents. Another study shows increased eye and upper respiratory symptoms in residents within two miles of a large hog operation in Iowa. In addition to our concerns about public health, we find it completely inappropriate to use appropriations bills to make substantive amendments to longstanding environmental protection laws. We ask you to keep this bill (and all other appropriations bills) free of anti-environmental riders. Thank you for considering our views. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/