Defending and Strengthening Federal Controls on Factory Farms
Ruling on factory farms delivers mixed results
As part of a coalition of environmental groups, SELC played a vital role in shaping new federal rules aimed at curbing pollution from the enormous amount of waste produced by factory hog farms and other factory farms. Among other things, the rules introduced by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2000 set important base-line protections for water quality.
©Neuse River Foundation
Hog growing has become an industrialized operation, with hundreds of thousands of animals concentrated in relatively small areas. The untreated waste poses a tremendous threat to public health and the environment, especially in the coastal plain which frequently floods.
However, the final rules in 2002 were a step backward - far less protective of the environment - and national environmental groups filed suit. As part of that legal action, SELC submitted a 'friend of the court" brief describing the progress made in the Southeast in recent years to curb pollution from factory farms. For instance, most of our six states have strengthened their permitting programs for these facilities. And in North Carolina, the Smithfield Corp. entered into a landmark agreement with the state to phase-out open-pit waste lagoons and sprayfields.
A ruling on the EPA suit in 2005 from the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York is a mixed-bag for the environment.
On the positive side, the decision includes findings that:
- Factory farms should be considered large-scale industrial operations, requiring them to abide by federal environmental and public health standards that govern industries.
- Factory farms produce air pollution in addition to water pollution. This is an important ruling, since the livestock industry negotiated an agreement with the EPA to sidestep the federal Clean Air Act.
- The final regulations violated the Clean Water Act's public participation requirements by failing to allow public review of a core component of the rules - the nutrient management plan that governs where waste will go.
The most significant unfavorable findings are that:
- Factory farms are not required to apply for a permit unless the waste stream is delivered directly into surface waters. This is a critical setback because most factory farms do not have pipes that terminate in surface waters, but waste water regularly reaches surface water during heavy rain events, from drainage ditches, or from breaches in waste storage pits.
- "Agricultural stormwater" does not constitute a discharge of pollutants, a ruling that will weaken application of the law to the serious problem of run-off from over-application of waste to sprayfields.
- The court accepted OMB's declaration that the new waste management technologies (that SELC helped to identify) are not economically feasible. This ruling could thwart efforts underway to further phase out waste lagoons and sprayfields in NC.
SELC is collaborating with national environmental groups in a request that the court reconsider parts of the decision. We are also active at the state level, with our focus on preserving the strong state programs we helped establish in our region.
