The Bakersfield Californian
Tuesday February 25, 2003, 05:15:07 PM
Oil and agriculture are the two major industries driving Kern County's economy. For more than two decades, oil companies have pumped billions of dollars into efforts to clean up the valley's polluted air.
They have changed operating methods and installed billions of dollars worth of pollution control devices to keep smog-causing fumes and dust from being spewed into the air.
Meanwhile, state law has exempted agriculture from most air pollution laws. Farmers still burn their fields. Their diesel-fueled pumps do not require permits. Plowing and discing practices throw dirt into the air. Dirt roads that cross fields are sources of dust.
The exemption stems from a romantic past, where farms and dairies were mom-and-pop operations too small to worry about and the heart of rural life. But today's farms are mostly large corporations. Dairies are "factory" size, counting their herds by the thousands, not the hundreds.
California's exemptions for polluting agricultural operations will end. The federal Environmental Protection Agency is demanding it ends by Nov. 23, or California will face losing $2 billion in federal road-building funds.
Responding to this deadline, as well as dire reports that the valley's polluted air is making its residents sick, state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, has introduced a package of 10 bills proposing cleanup efforts.
The bills will end most agriculture exemptions, establish fees for enforcing the new rules and overseeing cleanup efforts, and require changes in many farming operations.
To help farmers swallow the package, it contains more than a few spoonfuls of sugar, including low-interest loans and grants to help farmers pay the cost of converting to cleaner-burning equipment.
The details of Florez's bills are a long way from being finalized. Debate between the agriculture and environmental communities will help shape the legislation and subsequent cleanup efforts.
Environmentalists are calling Florez's plan a "gutsy move."
Some farmers have expressed opposition and alarm.
But Loren Hodge, manager of the Kern County Farm Bureau, has a more realistic view. He told The Californian, "... while it may be a bitter pill to swallow, we know that we're going to have to do something."
Hodge added that he would rather have Florez sponsoring legislation regulating the valley's farms and dairies than an urban environmentalist lawmaker who doesn't know much about farming.
"We would hate to see someone who really doesn't understand agriculture try to write something to make us comply," Hodge said.
Each of Florez's 10 pollution-related bills will require public and legislative debate before becoming law.
Florez is applauded for taking the initiative. It is now up to all of us to insure that this good step is followed by many others.
The eight-county San Joaquin Valley has some of the dirtiest and unhealthiest air in the nation. It will only get worse unless we all make sacrifices to make it better.