CATTLE PRODUCERS WILL CONTINUE TO PROTECT ENVIRONMENT, WATER QUALITY IN 1999

WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 22, 1998) – Environmental conservation policies will continue to be a focus for cattle producers in 1999, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) said today. Cattlemen will continue work to protect the environment in order to maintain economic viability and ensure their family ranches and farms can be passed down to future generations, while at the same time providing and protecting wildlife habitat and open spaces. One of the key environmental areas that is expected to receive attention in 1999 is water quality.

The Clean Water Act will be up for reauthorization in the 106^th Congress. NCBA has already begun working with key congressional committees to ensure legislators are aware of cattlemen's concerns. The administration is moving forward with implementation of its Clean Water Action Plan, including new regulations that focus on animal feeding operations and an update of effluent limitation guidelines (ELGs) for livestock.

NCBA will be working to ensure that regulations address site-specific needs and are based on sound science, taking into account current cattle industry environmental and economic practices that have been successful for generations.

An informal NCBA working group of representatives from many states active in the cattle feeding industry held a December meeting in Washington, D.C. with government officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The group presented the EPA officials with a conceptual model of the cattle feeding industry as well as potential feedlot best management practices that the EPA could refer to as it considers revisions to the ELGs for the livestock industry. The ELGs provide the EPA with technical guidance for the Clean Water Act’s feedlot permitting process.

The group, with representatives present from Arizona, Indiana, Idaho, Nebraska, California, Colorado, Kansas, Texas, and Missouri, has been consulting together for over a year in order to construct a model of the cattle feeding industry that conveys a national perspective.

"Because of the working group’s collective expertise, cattle producers have an important opportunity to help shape the outcome of the ELG process, future discharge permits and other regulations," said Greg Ruehle, executive vice president of the Nebraska Cattlemen’s Association and a member of the NCBA working group. "Essentially, this group is a valuable source of information and experience that we hope the EPA will use to collect data and understand the industry."

Since the EPA is under court order to reexamine the ELGs for livestock feeding operations by the year 2000 and to finalize any potential new regulations by 2002, it has asked agricultural and other groups to help EPA officials understand the industry from both a technological and economic standpoint, identify representative or exemplary management methods, and make rational choices about which pollution control processes and procedures are effective and economically feasible for feedlots of various sizes and locations.

In order to help the EPA with its evaluation process, the NCBA working group is providing tours of cattle facilities and technical expertise, as well as conducting briefings on an ongoing basis to demonstrate how the industry varies by size, location, design, management, environmental issues, profitability, and climatic influences.

-- NCBA --

Initiated in 1898, NCBA is the marketing organization and trade association for America’s one million cattle farmers and ranchers. With offices in Denver, Chicago and Washington D.C., NCBA is a consumer-focused, producer-directed organization representing the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry.