Air Quality Task Force
                                            Release No. 0072.97
                                                               
                                   Jim Petterson (202) 720-4623
                                     Fred Jacobs (202) 720-4649
                                           fred.jacobs@usda.gov
                                    George Bluhm (916) 752-1018
                                      bluhm@crocker.ucdavis.edu

AGRICULTURAL AIR QUALITY TASK FORCE MEETING SCHEDULED FOR 
  MARCH 5-6, 1997

     WASHINGTON, March 3, 1997--Paul Johnson, Chief of the Natural
Resources Conservation Service, announced today that the first meeting of
the Agricultural Air Quality Task Force is scheduled for March 5-6, 1997.

     Johnson, who is also task force chair, will open the two-day meeting,
which will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., at the Wyndham Bristol
Hotel, 2430 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, in Washington, D.C.  The task force will
meet to establish operating procedures, outline objectives, and discuss
other pertinent air quality issues.  This meeting is open to the public.  

  The task force was established in response to the 1996 Federal
Agriculture Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act and to address agricultural
air quality issues.  The meeting notice is published in the February 6, 1997
Federal Register, Volume 62, Number 25, and can be found on page 5587. 
Notice of this meeting is required under the Federal Advisory Committee Act,
5 U.S.C. App. 2.


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