ARIZONA ANGUS INVITATIONAL SALE

extent to which potential revision of the effluent limitations guidelines (ELG) could yield significant pollutant reductions,” EPA said.

Livestock agriculture groups point to improvements in the design of manure management systems — which include outdoor lagoons, tanks and equipment to inject liquefied manure into fields to reduce direct runoff into streams. Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) big enough to fall under EPA regulation — generally with hundreds or even thousands of animals — are also required to have pollution permits and nutrient management plans.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association was supportive of the effluent limitations guidelines study in a statement from its chief counsel, Mary-Thomas Hart.

“Collecting further information will enable EPA to make an informed and reasoned decision on whether to revise the CAFO ELGs,” Hart said. “We appreciate that EPA is not choosing to unnecessarily rush its regulatory process.”

And while technology such as the use of membranes to filter manure is unfolding, that method isn’t widely used in the poultry industry, for instance, the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association and other groups told EPA in response to a preliminary report on the effluent guidelines in 2021, in which the groups asked for an extended comment period.

Should updates come along, the groups said, EPA will need a more accurate accounting of the facilities that are covered, since some of the categories referenced in that report could include “restaurants, specialty sausage manufacturing and delicatessen and sandwich shops.”

In that preliminary report, EPA also cited regional shifts in where big livestock farms are located, as well as the general trend toward fewer but larger farms.

A study is also likely to run into the complications of the “Waters of the U.S.” regulations that attempt to define waterways subject to the Clean Water Act. The agency said its first step is to assess the extent to which CAFOs discharge into such waters.

Beyond that, the agency said, “EPA’s data about discharges of pollutants from CAFOs is sparse; indeed, its preliminary analysis was only able to analyze monitoring data from sixteen reporting CAFOs. EPA intends to gather information about discharges from the production area to appropriately characterize whether manure, litter, and process wastewater flows off land application areas.”