美国国家公共电台 NPR Farmers Fight Environmental Regulations

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

In the fight over how we treat our environment, farms can be a battleground. NPR's Dan Charles reports here on how regulations meant to protect land and water are being challenged by farmers.

DAN CHARLES, BYLINE¹: Environmentalist Craig Cox says streams and rivers across much of the country are suffering from the side effects of growing food.

CRAIG COX: The leading problems are fertilizer and manure² runoff from farm operations.

CHARLES: Cox is a vice³ president of the Environmental Working Group. He says nitrate-filled runoff from farms is making drinking water less safe. Phosphorous runoff is feeding toxic⁴ algae⁵ blooms.

COX: They're interfering⁶ with people's vacations, taking your kids to the beach and the beach is closed. There's stories about people getting sick.

CHARLES: This is preventable, Cox says. Farmers can grow extra vegetation to capture nitrates before that pollution runs into streams. They can plant wide grassy⁷ filter strips along stream banks. Some farmers do this, many do not. And there's no law forcing them to. The Clean Water Act, which has cleaned up pollution from factories over the past 40 years, specifically exempts⁸ what it calls normal farming operations like plowing⁹ or maintaining drainage ditches.

And farmers have fought any hint of stricter regulation, for instance, the Clean Water Rule released by the Obama administration. It lays out which streams or wetlands are actually waters of the U.S., and thus covered by the Clean Water Act. Don Parrish from the American Farm Bureau Federation¹⁰ says that rule expands the law's reach too much.

DON PARRISH: All of a sudden, farmers go from farming fields and land that they have always farmed to now farming in waters of the U.S.

CHARLES: Last week, President Trump¹¹ talked about damage to farmers as he ordered a formal review of the Clean Water Rule.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It's a horrible, horrible rule. Has sort of a nice name, but everything else is bad.

CHARLES: In Iowa, meanwhile, the water utility for the city of Des Moines may not survive because it picked a fight with the state's farmers. The utility sued several agricultural counties a couple of years ago, demanding that they reduce nitrate levels in a river that supplies Des Moines with drinking water. Here's Bill Stowe, CEO of the Des Moines Water Works.

BILL STOWE: We're trying to regulate what comes out of the underground drainage systems beneath farm fields.

CHARLES: But a member of the Iowa legislature has introduced a bill that would abolish the Des Moines Water Works and perhaps its lawsuit¹². The bill would replace the waterworks with a regional water authority. The lawmaker who sponsored the bill, who's a farmer, denies that he's trying to get rid of the Water Works because of that lawsuit. He says he's heard many concerns about the utilities management. But Bill Stowe's not buying it.

STOWE: This is clearly aimed at chilling our litigation and sending a message to others that no one dares to speak against industrial agriculture in this state.

CHARLES: The bill could pass the legislature this spring. Many farm groups say farmers want to reduce pollution in nearby streams. But cooperative, voluntary programs work better than regulation. Craig Cox, though, from the Environmental Working Group, says it's time to lay out a list of things that farmers are required to do. He'd start with those grassy buffer¹³ strips along streams.

COX: We could and should argue about that list if that's the right list. But the point is there needs to be a list.

CHARLES: The state of Minnesota's taking the lead on this. Starting this fall, that state's farmers will have to maintain a strip of grass 50 feet wide on average along many streams, or they'll have to pay a fine. Dan Charles, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF TUATARA'S, "THE SPIDER PIMP")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 manure   

n.粪，肥，肥粒；vt.施肥

参考例句：

• The farmers were distributing manure over the field.农民们正在田间施肥。
• The farmers used manure to keep up the fertility of their land.农夫们用粪保持其土质的肥沃。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

5 algae   

n.水藻，海藻

参考例句：

• Most algae live in water.多数藻类生长在水中。
• Algae grow and spread quickly in the lake.湖中水藻滋蔓。

6 interfering   

adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词

参考例句：

• He's an interfering old busybody! 他老爱管闲事！
• I wish my mother would stop interfering and let me make my own decisions. 我希望我母亲不再干预，让我自己拿主意。

7 grassy   

adj.盖满草的；长满草的

参考例句：

• They sat and had their lunch on a grassy hillside.他们坐在长满草的山坡上吃午饭。
• Cattle move freely across the grassy plain.牛群自由自在地走过草原。

8 exempts   

使免除[豁免]( exempt的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• This privilege, however, exempts only predecisional documents. 然而，此特权只免除那些文件在作出决定之前的披露责任。
• Function effectiveness: After then special-purpose, exempts the flushing formula. 功能效用：便后专用，免冲洗配方。

9 plowing   

v.耕( plow的现在分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过

参考例句：

• "There are things more important now than plowing, Sugar. "如今有比耕种更重要的事情要做呀，宝贝儿。 来自飘（部分）
• Since his wife's death, he has been plowing a lonely furrow. 从他妻子死后，他一直过着孤独的生活。 来自辞典例句

10 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

11 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

12 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

13 buffer   

n.起缓冲作用的人(或物)，缓冲器；vt.缓冲

参考例句：

• A little money can be a useful buffer in time of need.在急需时，很少一点钱就能解燃眉之急。
• Romantic love will buffer you against life's hardships.浪漫的爱会减轻生活的艰辛。