Congressman Newhouse presses EPA for withdrawal of damaging EPA nitrate study

July 1, 2019

Dairy farmers from the Pacific Northwest have been appealing to the EPA for several months to address the false nitrate study published by Region 10 in 2012 and republished in 2013. This study has been used as the basis for EPA enforcement action that caused one farm to go out of business, threatening the viability of two other dairy farms and cost one farm alone $12 million in compliance costs – a staggering amount made possible because of another family business.

On July 1, 2019 Rep. Dan Newhouse submitted a letter to EPA Director Andrew Wheeler calling for on him to “suspend the study from enforcement action and litigation pending completion of the peer review.” The press release announcing this action is presented below.

Farmers, through Save Family Farming and the dairy associations of Washington, Idaho and Oregon, have pressed Region 10 Administrator Christopher Hladick on the false nature of the study and the blatant attempt of the Region 10 staff to cover up the lack of adequate peer review. “When called to account for the lack of peer review, this staff attempted to change the categorization to a much lower level of science study that does not require a peer review. They clearly are afraid to have science experts examine this study in detail and show not only how false it is,  but the clear evidence that it was intentionally falsified,” said Save Family Farming Executive Director Gerald Baron.

UPDATE JULY 3, 2019

AP Article on Newhouse Letter:

https://apnews.com/19a840bacb9b4aab9ee9c6ae2c5e7271

Details of the in-depth analysis of this study by some of the top agricultural scientists in the nation may be found here, along with details of the categorization cover up:

https://savefamilyfarming.org/blog/category/clean-water/clean-groundwater/epa-nitrate-study/