The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, aka EPCRA, was created in 1986 to help communities plan for chemical emergencies. It requires industry to report on the storage, use, and release of hazardous substances to federal, state, and local governments.
It’s a good law, says NMPF Chief Counsel Clay Detlefsen, but unintended consequences have snared dairy farmers into a decades-long fight against over-regulation. And for those decades, Detlefsen’s been part of every twist and turn, with potential light at the end of the tunnel within the next year.
“EPCRA overall I think is a great law. It’s just been misconstrued by environmental activists, and they’ve hijacked a good law for nefarious purposes,” Detlefsen said. “My job is making sure that regulatory agencies don’t do stupid things, and yes, it takes literally decades to stop things from happening.”
