Bill may keep NC environment panel from new rules

A North Carolina state senator unhappy with a possible requirement that hog farmers test their streams for pollution wants to prevent an environmental panel from making regulations for the next two years.A Senate committee Tuesday approved a measure that would bar the Environmental Management Commission from adopting permanent rules until after July 1, 2011.Sen. Charlie Albertson of Duplin County is opposed to a proposal that would require large livestock operations to monitor streams running through their waste sprayfields.Speakers at the meeting said the bill went too far and would prevent the regulatory panel from creating rules to keep reservoirs and other bodies of water clean.The bill's next stop is the Senate floor.