In a legal settlement that could affect the entire U.S. meat
industry, the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to
identify and investigate thousands of factory farms that have
been avoiding government regulation for water pollution with
animal waste.
The settlement requires the agency to propose a rule on greater
information gathering on factory farms within the next 12
months. It will require the approximately 20,000 domestic
factory farms to report such information as how they dispose of
manure and other animal waste.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and
Waterkeeper Alliance filed the suit in 2009 over a rule that
exempted thousands of factory farms from taking steps to
minimize water pollution from the animal waste they generate.
"Thousands of factory farm polluters threaten America's water
with animal waste, bacteria, viruses and parasites that can make
people sick," said Jon Devine, an attorney with the nonprofit
Natural Resources Defense Council.
"Many of these massive facilities are flying completely under
the radar. EPA doesn't even know where they are," said Devine.
More than 30 years ago, Congress identified factory farms as
water pollution sources to be regulated under the Clean Water
Act's permit program.
But under a Bush administration regulation challenged by the
environmental groups in this lawsuit, large facilities were able
to escape government regulation by claiming, without government
verification, that they do not discharge into waterways
protected by the Clean Water Act.
Under the settlement reached May 26, the EPA will initiate a new
national effort to track down factory farms operating without
permits and determine if they must be regulated.
The specific information that EPA will require from individual
facilities will be determined after a period of public comment.
But the results of that investigation will enable the agency and
the public to create stronger pollution controls in the future
and make sure facilities are complying with current rules.
"The EPA's rules have failed to protect our rivers and lakes
from polluting factory farms," said Ed Hopkins, director of
Sierra Club's Environmental Quality Program. "Gathering more
information to document factory farms' pollution will lay the
groundwork for better protection of our waters."
The National Pork Producers Council expressed "deep frustration
and anger" over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's
continuing efforts "to develop costly agricultural regulations
that provide few if any additional environmental benefits."
"With this one-sided settlement, EPA yanked the rug out from
under America's livestock farmers," said Michael Formica, NPPC's
chief environmental counsel. "NPPC is looking at all appropriate
legal responses to EPA's disappointing course of action."
Factory farms, also known as concentrated animal feeding
operations, CAFOs, confine animals on an industrial scale and
produce massive amounts of manure and other waste that can
pollute waterways with dangerous contaminants.
These CAFOs apply liquid animal waste on land, which runs off
into waterways, killing fish, spreading disease, and
contaminating drinking water. The plaintiff groups cite EPA
estimates that pathogens, such as E. coli, are responsible for
35 percent of the nation's impaired river and stream miles, and
factory farms are one of the most common pathogen sources.