EPA Using Spy Drones to Fly Over Midwestern Farms

What is the EPA doing with spy planes? And why are they flying them over farmland in the midwest?

A bipartisan group of Capitol Hill lawmakers is pressing EPA Director Lisa Jackson to answer questions about privacy issues and other concerns after the agency used aerial surveillance to monitor livestock operations over their home state of Nebraska.

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The letter asks nearly two-dozen questions including why the inspections are being conducted, how many flights have occurred and whether they have resulted in any enforcement activities.

“Nebraskans are rightfully skeptical of an agency which continues to unilaterally insert itself into the affairs of rural America,” Smith added.

The Environmental Protection Agency uses aerial surveillance across a swath of the Midwest know as Section 7 – which  includes Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and  Missouri — and has defended the practice as cost-efficient.