Craig rips opponents of mega-farm break

BOISE – U.S. Sen. Larry Craig is accusing environmentalists of trying to ruin agriculture by fighting a proposal to exempt commercial mega-farms from reporting toxins from animal waste.

Craig, a Republican, insists clean air and water laws that regulate other large industries were never intended to apply to large livestock operations – even though some produce deadly levels of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide.

“I believe this is one of the new cause celebres of the environmental movement to try to shut down large farming operations or to restrict them so they are less than profitable,” Craig, 59, said during an interview with the Lewiston Morning Tribune on Friday.

Craig’s proposal would help protect large animal operations, such as dairies and hog farms, from lawsuits and keep judges from designating them as Superfund sites.

But groups such as the Idaho Conservation League and the Sierra Club protested after Craig’s suggestion surfaced last week at a Senate agricultural appropriations committee hearing.

The groups said the amendment would deprive rural residents of information on what kind of toxins the corporate farms are releasing into the air and what sort of health concerns they should be aware of.

It’s also not just environmental groups taking a stand.

On Friday, Weiser resident Kathy Stone joined the Idaho Conservation League on the Statehouse steps in Boise to plead for Craig to drop his amendment.

Stone said a giant dairy near her home has polluted the air so badly that her son often wakes up at night coughing and wheezing.

“We can’t shut our house up tight enough,” Stone said tearfully.

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has been taking measurements near Stone’s home but has taken no corrective action, she said.