Idaho dairies subject to clean air rule

BOISE – Idaho’s dairies will operate under the Clean Air Act under a new rule taking effect next month.

The rule – created after about 18 months of negotiations among the state, the Idaho Dairyman’s Association and the Idaho Conservation League – requires dairies and other confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, to get air quality permits if they emit 100 tons or more of ammonia a year.

“Idaho is the only state in the nation that has regulation for ammonia emissions for dairy CAFOs,” Martin Bauer with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality told the Times-News of Twin Falls.

Manure and urine from dairies, cattle feedlots, poultry farms and other large livestock operations emit ammonia gases into the air, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Though the emissions pose no health risk, Bauer said, they can cause water quality problems such as algae growth.

Most of the state’s dairies already meet the requirements under the new rule, said Bob Naerebout, of the Dairymen’s Association.