Farmers will eventually be facing federal regulations involving air emissions produced on their farms, that may touch on everything from spreading manure, to the exhaust fan at the barn. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its construction of the Air Quality Compliance Agreement.

According to the EPA website, its primary goals are to reduce air pollution, monitor animal feeding operation emissions, and to develop a national consensus on the methodologies for collecting and sampling emissions at the farm level. This new compliance agreement will have a bite, with the ability to levy some hefty fines. Some of the regulatory acts for which EPA will be seeking compliance are the Clean Air Act and the Right to Know Act, according to the EPA website.

A two-year planning period is being laid out, at which time volunteer feeding operations can sign up for emissions testing, at the price of $200, and allow air testing on their farms in order to set the base line standard. Ammonia is one of the biggest concerns, but many other emissions, including hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide are being tested as well. Complaints from neighbors about manure spreading and other unpleasant aromas from farm operations appears to be raising a stink, according to the Penn State website at http://nutrient.psu. edu/.

Much of the information available to the public is still undergoing transformation in wording and timeline. As with any government regulations, they tend to be very dynamic. The next two years of field testing will have significant impact on final wording. At present, the farmer-to-EPA agreement is a 41-page document, which can be viewed on the EPA website under