Environmentalists Blast EPA's Factory Farm Control Plan As "Weak"

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) criticized the draft US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) strategy for controlling water pollution from industrial-sized hog, poultry and other livestock feeding operations because it fails to address the environmental and public health threats posed by factory farms. Large animal operations contaminate drinking water used by people and other livestock, spread diseases, cause fish kills and shellfish contamination, and emit dangerous air pollutants. EPA’s plan would not require better pollution controls until 2005 for most facilities. Rejecting the plan, EDF and SELC urged EPA to impose a moratorium on new and expanding factory farms until it puts meaningful regulations in place to deal with the thousands of existing factory feedlots in the US. Currently, livestock produce an estimated 5 tons of animal manure for every person in the US each year.

The strategy, released today as part of the President’s recently announced Clean Water Initiative, would phase in permitting and planning requirements for all large factory feedlots over the next seven years. Under the plan, many facilities would not need to obtain permits or even comply with minimal technical and planning standards until 2005.

“EPA’s strategy fails to address the immediate impacts of current poor animal waste practices,” said Joe Rudek, NCEDF senior scientist. “Today’s typical manure management leads to the contamination of groundwater, runoff of waste into streams, and the release of vast quantities of pollutants into the atmosphere — all of which add up to a totally unacceptable threat to public health and the environment.”

“It has taken EPA far too long to recognize that under current law factory farms should be required to have Clean Water Act permits, just like many other industries,” said Daniel Whittle, attorney for the North Carolina EDF. “The agency should immediately require all new facilities to obtain National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permits, without any phase-in period. As proposed, EPA’s strategy allows new factory farms to continue spreading throughout the country long before meaningful controls are in place to reduce their serious impacts on the environment and communities.”

“North Carolina learned the hard way that postponing environmental controls over industrial-sized hog operations is a formula for disaster,” said Michelle Nowlin, attorney for the SELC. “Unfortunately, EPA’s plan lacks any sense of urgency in dealing with this chronic problem. North Carolina and other states cannot wait another 5-10 years for adequate reforms to be put in place. We must hold the line on new growth until EPA develops an effective plan to clean up the environmental problems created by thousands of existing factory farms.”

Under the draft plan, EPA only requires facilities in sensitive watersheds to obtain permits by 2002, while facilities not located in those special areas will have until 2005 to meet permitting and planning requirements. In addition, EPA plans to revise its so-called effluent guidelines for concentrated animal feeding operations by 2001. Not until that time will EPA assess the adequacy of waste management technologies and practices typically used by factory feedlots.