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WA dairy industry fires back over nitrate report

December 21, 2012 – The Washington dairy industry has taken aim at a federal report that identified dairies as the likely contributors to nitrate contamination in Lower Valley wells, saying the September study failed to lay a scientific foundation for reducing the pollution and instead created “confusion, distrust, fragmentation, uncertainty and skepticism.”

The salvo, fired in a news release by the Washington State Dairy Products Commission, quotes a consulting firm from Santa Fe, N.M., and a dairy expert with Texas A&M University, who conclude the report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lacked sufficient technical data to justify its conclusions. READ MORE