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FRANKFORT, Ky. — Swine, dairy and poultry producers can find out more about an air emissions consent agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in one of seven educational sessions scheduled in March.
The dates, times and locations of the sessions are:
March 15, 10 a.m.-noon EST, Fleming County Extension office
March 16, 10 a.m.-noon CST, Adair County Extension office
March 17, 1-3 p.m. EST, Nelson County Extension office
March 21, 6:30-8:30 p.m. CST, McLean County Middle School
March 22, 12:30-2:30 p.m. CST, Christian County Extension office
March 23, 12:30-2:30 p.m. CST, Warren County Extension office
March 29, 1-3 p.m. CST, Graves County Extension office
The consent agreement provides for a two-year national air monitoring study to establish regulatory thresholds for emissions from an animal feeding operation’s animal housing structures and manure storage areas. Producers who sign on to the agreement are protected from some legal actions. Participating producers would pay a “civil penalty” of $200-$1,000 for single-farm animal feeding operations and $1,000-$100,000 for producers with multiple livestock or poultry farms, depending on the size of the operation. Participating producers will pay a fee of $2,500 into a fund that will pay for the national monitoring study; for pork producers, the National Pork Board has offered to pay the fee with up to $6 million of check-off funds.
Producers have until May 1 to sign up to participate in the compliance agreement.For more information, contact Warren Beeler at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture at (502) 564-4983 or Richard Coffey, Extension swine specialist with the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, at (270) 365-7541, or go to the UK College of Agriculture’s Department of Animal Sciences Web site at www.uky.edu/Agriculture/AnimalSciences/NutrientManagement/
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