The tribe at the heart of the controversial What’s Upstream advertising campaign in Washington state now claims the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provided more than grant funding for the anti-agriculture billboards.
According to Capital Press, Swinomish tribe chairman Brian Cladoosby claims the EPA provided financial support and substantive guidance in the campaign development process.
“Staff from the EPA were intimately involved in helping us develop the content of public materials to ensure that they were both compliant with federal grant requirements and rooted in sound science,” Cladoosby told Capital Press.
Billboards in Washington state included photos of cattle in a stream with the text: Unregulated agriculture is putting our waterways at risk.
After photos of the billboards were posted online, the agriculture community and several members of Congress fought back against the accusation and the campaign, urging residents to ask their Congressman for a buffer between agricultural land and waterways.
In April, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee the EPA was concerned by the campaign.
McCarthy reported the EPA put a halt to its grant funding for What’s Upstream, which was developed by the Swinomish Indian tribe, public relations firm Strategies 360 and other environmental groups saying the EPA was distressed by the use of money and tone of the campaign.
Congressmen and others have questioned EPA’s use of funding for the anti-agriculture campaign.
EPA officials say they cannot control grant recipients’ final product.
Capital Press reports the Inspector General of the EPA will investigate “whether any laws were broken by using federal funds to sway legislators.”
The billboards have since been removed.
The What’s Upstream Facebook page and website remain online. Both promote streamside and planting buffers of 100 feet of natural vegetation between farmland and waterways.