Bridwell: Watch out, the EPA is coming

Dear Editor,

I’m no environmentalist, but the air around here looks pretty clear to me today as it does most nearly every day in Pinal County. But the EPA thinks they know better than us, and they’re coming after our air, our lifestyles and our pocketbooks as hard and fast as they can.

In Maricopa County, some isolated PM10 locations started a train wreck that has engulfed every industry, is costing consumers millions of dollars in added product costs and is infringing on private property rights everywhere there. Millions of dollars in fines already imposed are being passed on to consumers in higher prices for products and commodities, not to mention the hundreds of millions dollars being spent for compliance measures that will end up being passed on to the general public.

The regulations there have now reached down to recreational equestrian enthusiasts. Local ropings are being forced to water backyard arenas and install dust-free ground cover in stalls and paddocks. Private driveways will be forced into paving, regardless of location or cost. Regulations on home fireplaces, the use of leaf blowers in private yards and more restrictions on Maricopa County lifestyles are being implemented by the overzealous county, city, and town environmental agencies almost daily.

In Pinal County the spillover of regulations already has us dumping valuable water needlessly on construction sites and roadways, as more dust blows in from the desert and farming operations nearby even as the water is being applied.

Once Maricopa County caved to the EPA, every city in the Valley started adding layers and layers of bureaucracy and regulations on top of what the EPA, the state and the county already had imposed. All this because as few as three monitored sites in Maricopa County consistently violated PM10 emissions.

Here in Pinal County, the feedlot and dairy operations in Cowtown and around the City of Maricopa are the primary violators that the EPA has targeted and now describes as some of the worst in the nation. They are using those readings as justification to re-categorize the entire county and all of the citizens are going to pay a huge price. I would argue that the value those industries add to our economy and lifestyle far outweighs the environmental concerns, if reasonably attended to by the industries there. The subsequent overkill that will be wrought by the EPA will be outrageous.

Outside of those specific areas, ordinary agriculture activities and dirt roads across the county create the largest percentages of the periodic PM10 violations that occur here. Most frequently it’s only on windy days, and when wintertime cold fronts with their temporary temperature inversion effects, that the short-lived violations occur. New construction is a distant fifth place in order of contributors but is already the highest regulated.

If we permit the EPA to start down this countywide path, all recreational equestrian activities will become subject to regulation, many frequently used dirt roads will be closed to traffic and others will be required to be paved at great public expense, resulting in yet even higher taxes.

Off-road vehicles could be banned, county burn days will be eliminated, the County Fairgrounds, all the Rodeo Grounds, the Renaissance Fair, the WPGA and celebrity golf tournaments, the Chili Championship and the various air shows along with a multitude of other civic and social events could be closed down or curtailed due to unpaved grounds and unpaved parking lots that might create too much dust.

The costs of mining commodities, agricultural, dairy and beef products will all increase as they are forced to comply with new regulations. The cost of new housing is already impacted and will go higher. Vehicle emission testing, which has nothing to do with PM10, will be just around the corner because one EPA regulation will lead to a dozen others.

In Maricopa County over four million people contribute to the emission issues and consequently absorb the costs that EPA intervention has created. There are certainly ozone and other particulate issues there that probably need the EPA involvement. But the advance of PM10 regulations there has been over-reaching and will be here.

In Pinal County only 340,000 people are available to create the totality of our limited environmental issues and absorb the costs of potentially expansive EPA regulations. You do the math. Any new regulations will adversely impact commercial and industrial economic growth and negatively affect an already beleaguered employment and housing market. Certainly, this is not what we need today.

If this message sounds alarmist, it’s supposed to be. The old Arabic story about what happens when a camel gets its nose into any part of the tent will hold true in this case. All infringements on our rights start with a little regulation here and another ordinance there. Government bureaucracy, in all forms, grows exponentially until the citizens stand up and say ‘no more!’

Our brand new Board of Supervisors are still going to be trying to figure out where their parking spaces are while big brother EPA is implementing its assault on Pinal County. We need to alert them now and encourage them to immediately use the full force of their offices, their attorneys, their lobbyists, Congressman Flake, our new Congresswoman Kirkpatrick, Senator Kyl, Senator McCain and all other means available to them to keep the EPA out of Pinal County.

We are, and will remain, a rural county for decades to come and while there are urbanized pockets here and there, at least 90% of our landmass is desert and farmland. The EPA has very limited business here, and we have county and state officials already attending to that business. We should all help our Supervisors find a way to make them go away. We’re absolutely going to regret it if they find a way to set up shop in Pinal County.

Contact your Supervisor, tell him to tell the EPA to go away and ask what you can do to help keep the EPA out of our county.

Bill Bridwell

File photo

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