Op-Ed

In 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) quietly passed a rule requiring farmers and ranchers to prepare a spill containment plan for oil products stored on their property. The new rule requires producers who store 1,320 or more gallons of fuel to build a special wall or basin around fuel storage facilities and have the structures certified by a professional engineer. This type of intrusive regulation from Washington bureaucrats would cost small farmers and ranchers tens of thousands of dollars.