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National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit
Regulation and Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations
http://www.epa.gov/owm/afos/proposedrule.htm
US EPA Headquarters Press Release
Washington, DC
Date Published: 12/15/2000
Title: EPA PROPOSES STRICT
NEW CONTROLS TO REDUCE WATER POLLUTION FROM LARGE INDUSTRIAL FEEDLOT
OPERATIONS
EPA PROPOSES STRICT NEW CONTROLS TO REDUCE WATER
POLLUTION FROM LARGE INDUSTRIAL FEEDLOT OPERATIONS
EPA today is proposing strict new controls to protect
public health and the environment from one of the nation's leading
causes of water pollution -- animal wastes from large, industrial
feedlot operations.
EPA Assistant Administrator for Water, J. Charles Fox, said,
"Wastes from large factory farms are among the greatest threats to
our nation's waters and drinking water supplies. Today, EPA is taking
action to protect public health and the environment by significantly
controlling pollution from animal feeding operations."
The livestock industry has undergone dramatic changes in the past 20
years, consolidating scattered, smaller facilities into fewer but vastly
larger feeding operations that result in greater and more concentrated
generation of wastes. An estimated 376,000 large and small livestock
operations that confine animals generate approximately 128 billion
pounds of manure each year. Typically these facilities confine beef and
dairy cattle, hogs, and chickens.
Nationwide, nearly 40 percent of surveyed waters are too polluted for
fishing or swimming. Some 60 percent of river pollution comes from all
kinds of agricultural runoff, including livestock operations. Pollution
from livestock is associated with many types of waterborne disease, as
well as problems like pfiesteria outbreaks which have plagued the
Chesapeake Bay, red tides, algae blooms, and the dead zone in the Gulf
of Mexico.
The new requirements would apply to as many as 39,000 concentrated
animal feeding operations (CAFOs) across the country. Today, only an
estimated 2,500 large and small livestock operations have enforceable
permits under the Clean Water Act. A CAFO is currently defined as having
1,000 or more cattle or comparable "animal units" of other
livestock. Smaller operations may also be CAFOs if they are a threat to
water quality. EPA today is co-proposing two options for a new CAFO
definition. One proposed definition could include livestock facilities
with more than 500 cattle or other animal units. The other proposal
would require operations with 300-1000 cattle to have a permit if meet
certain risk-based conditions.
In addition to stricter permitting requirements, the proposal includes
several new strict controls: 1) poultry, veal, and swine operations
would be required to prevent all discharges from their waste storage
pits and lagoons where wastes are collected; 2) the proposal eliminates
potential exemptions from permits presently used in some states; as a
result, EPA expects that all large livestock operations will now have to
acquire permits; 3) under this proposal, EPA and the states will issue
co-permits for corporations and contract growers to ensure financial
resources exist to meet environmental requirements; 4) the spreading of
manure on the land owned by livestock facilities would be limited to
protect water ways.
In March l999, EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a
Unified National Strategy for Animal Feeding Operations, in response to
public concern about contamination of rivers, lakes, streams, coastal
waters and ground water from livestock manure. Today's proposal is an
important step in that strategy.
EPA will take public comment for 120 days and will hold public meetings
around the country on today's proposal. Additional information is
available on EPA's Office of Water web site at: http://www.epa.gov/owm/afo.htm
. R-192 ###
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