Comment letter - FINAL-lthd

March 2, 2005 Air Docket Environmental Protection Agency Mailcode: 6102T 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20460 To Whom It May Concern: The State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators (STAPPA) and the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials (ALAPCO) are pleased to submit these comments on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Proposed Animal Feeding Operations Consent Agreement and Final Order (AFO CA/FO), as published in the Federal Register on January 31, 2005 (70 Federal Register 4958). We previously raised serious concerns with prior versions of the agreement in letters to EPA dated April 7, 2003, and February 18, 2004. We continue to have these concerns with the agreement and, accordingly, urge EPA not to enter into a consent agreement with animal feeding operations (AFOs) that waives enforcement of important provisions of the Clean Air Act in order to obtain emissions data from AFOs. While we commend EPA for embarking on a longer-term strategy for dealing with agricultural air emissions, we believe the agency should be working more closely with states and localities to adequately address their concerns. Our comments on the proposal are outlined below and spelled out in detail in the attachment: • The proposed AFO CA/FO interferes with the ability of states and localities to attain air quality standards and enforce air pollution control laws; several of the agreement’s ...