Environmentalists Blast Weak Factory Farm Policy

Environmental Defense, the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Colorado Environmental Coalition, and ACCORD Agriculture, Inc. of Farnsworth, Texas called on President Clinton to direct the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to abandon plans to issue a weak policy aimed at controlling pollution from large factory-style animal farms. The groups expressed alarm that the proposed guidelines expected this week would perpetuate existing methods of waste disposal, including pumping manure into dirt pits and onto farm fields, with little oversight by state or federal government. The groups stated that the EPA policy would fail to protect citizens’ drinking water supplies or prevent more fish kills.

Spills from animal waste lagoons have caused massive fish kills in North Carolina, Ohio, Maryland, and Virginia during the last several years. Animal waste disposal systems contaminate drinking water wells, pollute the air and degrade rivers and bays.

“The proposed federal policy is remarkably weak and may undermine the progress many states have made in reducing pollution from animal feedlots,” said Michelle Nowlin, attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill. “For example, in North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt has called for a phase out of animal waste pits. In contrast, EPA’s policy supports their use. And some states have laws that prohibit the adoption of regulatory programs that are more stringent than the federal minimum. EPA’s policy represents a serious threat to them.”

“A typical factory hog farm produces as much waste as a small city,” said Tim Searchinger, attorney for Environmental Defense. “Yet the anticipated policy would do little more than legitimize the existing, nearly uncontrolled, way these factory farms operate.”

“Under the proposed policy, more than 90% of the factory farms would be issued a permit automatically, with little agency oversight, no public input, and no clear limits on the amount of manure that can be pumped onto farm fields,” said Dan Whittle, attorney for Environmental Defense in North Carolina. “The result of the policy will be more of the same - more fish kills, more groundwater contamination, more unbearable odor for neighbors around the facilities.”

“This xpected policy will not protect Colorado’s precious water resources,” said Elise Jones, Executive Director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition. “Colorado has a strong program to prevent pollution from hog factory farms, which was approved by voters in 1998. I would have expected EPA to build on our experience, and to extend that basic approach to other kinds of factory farms. Instead, EPA’s proposal would lack even the basics of a program that is designed to protect water quality and limit emissions of pollutants into the air.”

The groups called on EPA to issue a strong permitting guidance that will:

• Require all large-scale factory farms to obtain a Clean Water Act pollution control permit;
• Put real, quantified limits on the amount of waste that can be applied to local farm fields;
• Allow the public an opportunity to evaluate the manure management plans and to challenge their adequacy;
• Control the large quantity of air and groundwater pollution produced by lagoons and sprayfields; and
• Establish firm and protective standards that ensure the safe storage of manure and urine, such as restrictions on lagoons in floodplains.

The groups called on citizens to urge EPA and the President to rewrite the policy. “Citizens need to speak out, loud and clear. Without strict pollution controls, factory hog, chicken, and dairy farms will continue to pollute our drinking water and kill millions of fish every year. It’s up to EPA to set a protective national standard. We’re disappointed that the agency appears content with the status quo,” said Jeanne Gramstorff, director of ACCORD Agriculture, Inc. in Farnsworth, Texas, a group formed to protect groundwater in the Texas Panhandle from the impacts of large factory hog farms.