EPA Explores Tougher Limits for CAFO Runoff

by Tom Johnston, meatingplace.com

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it will study the prospect of the agency committing resources to rulemaking that would toughen wastewater regulations on industrial sources such as large-scale livestock farms the agency calls concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Any revision would be the first EPA has made regarding CAFO regulations since 2008. Those changes occurred in response to a court order stemming from a lawsuit filed by environmental group Waterkeeper Alliance. The 2008 rule, among other aspects, specified that the owner or operator of a CAFO that discharges or proposes to discharge effluent must apply for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.

EPA’s announcement comes after consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch sued the agency, convincing the court to order the agency to respond to a petition the plaintiff filed with the EPA in 2017 urging the agency to strengthen its regulations and permitting program for CAFOs.

The Clean Water Act defines CAFOs as “point sources” of pollution, which the plaintiffs argue should require CAFOs to follow permits that restrict their pollution discharges into rivers and streams. But due to the EPA’s weak regulations, the plaintiffs say, only a small fraction of these operations have the required permits. The permits that do exist also are weak and inadequately protective of water quality, they contend.

Meanwhile, EPA also has its eyes on meat and poultry processing (MPP) plants. In 2021, the agency announced its intent to initiate rulemaking revising effluent limita- tions on those facilities. The agency’s last amendment to the original 1974 regulation came in 2004, but that regulation only applies to 300 of the estimated 7,000 processing plants nationwide.

The announcement followed EPA’s completion of a detailed study on the processing industry, indicating those facilities discharge the highest phosphorus levels and second-highest nitrogen levels of all industrial categories. Some MPP facilities, however, already are removing nutrients from their wastewater and achieving effluent concentrations well below limitations in the 2004 regulation, the agency noted.

In March of 2022, the EPA submitted an information collection request to gather sufficient data from MPPs to support a rulemaking.