EPA zeroing in on non-point source pollution

Last year through the US Environmental Protection Agency the White House moved to more closely identify the sources of non-point pollution.

Broadly, the EPA's proposed rules would assert federal regulatory authority over streams, tributaries, wetlands and other flowing waters that significantly affect other protected waters downstream. That means some operations that wanted to dump pollutants into those waters or develop around them would have to get a federal permit. The EPA has been working to clear up misconceptions, putting to rest rumors that puddles in your back yard would be regulated, for example. Farming practices that are currently exempted from the Clean Water Act — plowing, seeding and minor drainage, among other things — will continue to be exempted. [Black Hills Pioneer]

Monsanto's flagship product is known to cause birth defects and spontaneous abortions. The company that owns a strain of Frakenmaize, the only genetically modified product approved for cultivation in the European Union, is looking to acquire rival Syngenta.

This year South Dakota's GOP congressional delegation is stumbling all over itself trying to protect donors like Monsanto and Syngenta from their accountability for the state's impaired waters.