March 2002 Page 8

Poultry producers Dorman Grace and Dan Smalley challenge ADEM’s CAFO regulation concerning the winter spreading ban in north Alabama.

          epresentatives from the poultry
          industry, ADEM, NRCS and
          Auburn University met on Wed-nesday, January 23, in Birmingham to discuss the ADEM’s CAFO regu-lation that prohibits the spreading of poultry litter in north Alabama be-tween November 15 and February 15.
     Auburn University representative,
Ted Tyson, and NRCS representative, Ken Rogers, didn’t waiver in their support of a “no winter spreading border” across thes state, nor did they

breeder growers. They also argued that at no time in the three-year process of developing the CAFO rule were they told that there would be a line across that state or that there would be a specific period that litter could not be spread.
     The meeting concluded with recommendations that industry representatives gather the following information: number of breeder houses there are in the state, par-ticularly north of the set line; number of tons of litter produced per house per year; number of houses with wet litter compared to dry litter; and the estimated cost, broken down by each process or input, of cleaning out, storing, spreading and adding saw-dust. This information is being pro-cessed and will be delivered to
the regulators.
     AP&EA will continue to work to bring this issue to a reas-onable conclusion.
     We especially thank Dorman Grace and Dan Smalley for their continued efforts to resolve this matter.

The Alabama Legislature has accom-plished very little in the first half of it’s regular legis-lative session. The House has been bogged down in procedural delays over the House Republicans’ accusation that they were denied due process in the speaker’s inter-pretation of the House rules during debate and passage of new con-gressional districts. The Senate, on the other hand, has tied up several legislative days debating how proceeds from a jury verdict favoring the state in a case involving the state and Exxon Oil Corp would be spent. Ironically, the state has not received the $3.5 billion settlement and may not in that the case is under appeal.
At the time of this writing, the impasse in both chambers seems to be breaking and

progress may resume shortly. The Legis-lature has not debated the state’s education and general fund budgets thus far. A bill for a state employee pay raise has been intro-duced but it is unclear where the money to pay for it will come from since there is a pre-dicted shortfall in the general fund budget in excess of $60 million. Needless to say, very little contro-versial legislation has been taken up and with only 15 legislative days left in the session, little is expected to pass this session.
We are currently monitoring or negotiating
several bills including the Family Farm Pre-servation Bill (would provide a limited remedy from certain civil suits); Farm Animal, Crop, and Research Facilities Protection Act

(provides penalties for the destruction of scientific research as it relates to animals and crops); and finally, legislation auth-orizing the Commissioner of Conser-vation and Natural Resources to prohibit certain birds, animals, reptile and fish from coming into the state. In addition, we are involved in various other legis-lation that impacts the industry.
Again, it does not appear that a lot of
legislation will be enacted this session. If
you have a question about legislation or
the legislative process please don’t hesitate to call us.

support reducing the moratorium on
numbers of weeks of spreading litter.
They actually suggested that if the
line was moved, that it should be
moved further south. Richard Hulcher and Steve Jenkins, ADEM representatives, indicated that if NRCS changed their recommended standards then EPA would challenge Alabama’s CAFO regulations. Industry representatives Dan Smalley and Dorman Grace gave arguments regarding the set border, definitive dates and special circumstances of