The chairmen of two Senate committees are calling for an investigation into billboards in Washington state that blame agriculture for polluting waterways because they apparently were funded by a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), chairman of the Agriculture Committee are requesting an audit and investigation of an EPA grant to the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission that was reportedly used to support a campaign in Washington state funded by a coalition calling itself “What’s Up Stream.” The campaign included billboards and a website that support increased regulation of agriculture in the Evergreen State.

Western agriculture publication Capital Press first called attention to the billboards in an April 1 story, and Sen. Roberts picked up on it Monday. “This disturbing billboard is a bold example of exactly what America’s farmers and ranchers complain about all the time: the EPA has an agenda antagonistic to producers,” said Roberts in a statement. According to the Capital Press report, EPA’s biggest problem with the billboard stating that “unregulated agriculture is putting our waterways at risk” is that they didn’t receive credit for their financial contribution, which is apparently a requirement when they provide grant money to organizations.

“It appears a large portion of the EPA financial assistance went to pay a public relations and lobbying firm, Strategies 360, to conduct an advocacy campaign called ‘What’s Upstream?’ in partnership with environmental activists, including Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and Western Environmental Law Center,” Inhofe and Roberts wrote in their letter to EPA inspector general Arthur A. Elkins, Jr. “This Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission grant appears to be part of a broader war on farmers and rural communities that the Obama Administration, through the EPA, has been waging in concert with its allies in the environmental activist community. It is imperative we learn whether EPA officials are turning a blind eye to this deceptive wrongdoing, and why the administration did not perform the necessary oversight to confirm taxpayer dollars are not mismanaged, and ensure well-established and important federal restrictions against lobbying are being followed,” the Senators concluded.

Big kudos are due to Capital Press for a fine piece of journalism breaking this story. Nice job!