The senators’ letter follows a recently released second draft policy assessment on particulate matter from EPA. EPA staff concluded that the Administrator could either retain the current standards on particulate matter or make them more stringent.

“Considering EPA’s history on agriculture issues, I’m greatly concerned that this puts us one step closer to imposing more regulations on farmers,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said. “We all want a clean and healthy environment, but it defies common sense to mandate that farmers keep dust between their fence rows when combining or that the county government keep gravel dust on the road.”

Grassley reiterated that if the EPA administrator were to revise the dust standard, farmers and livestock producers would likely be unable to attain the standard levels and the rural economy would be devastated.

The letter, signed by Grassley and Senators Saxby Chambliss, Sam Brownback, Mike Johanns, Ben Nelson, Tim Johnson, Pat Roberts, Mike Enzi, Johnny Isakson, Mike Crapo, Thad Cochran, Jim Bunning, George Voinovich, John Cornyn, John Thune, James Risch, Jim Inhofe, Tom Coburn, John Barrasso, and Blanche Lincoln, can be found here.