Larger farms generate more wastes, creating greater potential for large-scale pollution. The state and federal environmental agencies would be remiss if they did not keep an eye out for the potential of agricultural pollution. Government and industry face similar scrutiny. The Environmental Protection Agency is forcing states to better enforce the Clean Water Act. As a result, the Environmental Protection Division has increased standards for the water quality of streams and rivers, which makes all waste treatment much more expensive.
Farmers feel like scapegoats for the state's water quality programs.
They know that the city of Atlanta continues to be the state's greatest water polluter, and they know that storm water runoff and millions of septic tanks also contribute. Most farmers qualify as environmentalists for the way they treat their land, but as long as their operations pose a potential threat to the state's waters, they can expect and should expect to have their operations regulated. New regulations may be a burden to the farmers who are good stewards, but they are needed to protect the public from the bad stewards, whose practices are the very reason those regulations are being proposed. Most Of The Time One of the processes of maturing is learning to recognize your strengths and weaknesses. This sounds so simple, but ego can prevent us from admitting to ourselves, much less anyone else, that someone else can do a particular job better or that someone else would provide superior leadership.