Rik Dalvit/For the Capital Press

Editorial

If anyone needs further proof that the Environmental Protection Agency has jumped the tracks, it is the new efforts to control — dust.

Dust? Surely the folks at the EPA have flipped their butterfly nets. Of all of the pollutants the federal government needs to keep an eye on, dust ranks right up there with pocket lint. Yet the EPA is hot on the trail of dust as another culprit that threatens the well-being of humankind.

One can almost see the white-gloved EPA dust patrol descending on every source of dust — presumably including teenagers’ rooms — to protect us from this menace.

The EPA’s reinvigorated efforts to control dust come on the heels of a Feb. 24 U.S. Court of Appeals ruling in Washington, D.C. In it, the court said that dust could be hazardous, depending on whether is was contaminated with vehicle emissions, metals or other toxins. It should be noted that the court did not rule that dust by itself was necessarily hazardous.

That was enough for the EPA’s leaders to take that ruling as the green light to ratchet up the dust standards.

Because of the threat dust poses to humanity, the EPA has put its tougher regulation of dust on a fast track, tightening the standard of 150 micrograms per cubic meter — already difficult for farmers and ranchers to meet — down to 12 to 15 microgram per cubic meter, Denise Kennedy, a Denver resource attorney, said during a recent conference call. The tougher standard would be nearly impossible for most farmers, ranchers or feedlots to meet, especially during the summer.

Lest the good people at the EPA be so misguided as to think they’re doing anyone a favor, they are not. Farmers and ranchers already know that dust is part of their operations. They don’t like dust. It gets into their machinery and their lungs. But the fact of the matter is that dust is part of many agricultural operations. It’s minimized, but it’s still there. They use water and dust retardants to minimize dust every way they can.

In fact, just the background level of dust in many areas exceeds the proposed new standards. About 40 counties across the West can’t even meet the old standards.

So the EPA is getting ready to tell everyone something they already know: It’s dusty sometimes. Beyond that, what does the agency’s leaders expect to accomplish?

The double-whammy of the EPA effort is the state governments will be stuck with the bill, looking for ways to meet the new standards. If anyone knows of a state government with the spare money or manpower to take on one more unfunded federal mandate, raise your hand.

There’s only one thing to do with the EPA’s new dust standard. Sweep it up and throw it away.