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Factory Farming & EPA: Running Up The White Flag On Waste In Our Waterways

Factory Farming & EPA: Running Up The White Flag On Waste In Our Waterways. Hog Farmers Receive Less than 25¢ for Every Grocery Dollar Spent on Pork. Source: USDA. http://www.dpichicken.org/newsletters/docs/timely%20topics%20june%2010.pdf

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Factory Farming & EPA: Running Up The White Flag On Waste In Our Waterways

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  1. Factory Farming & EPA: Running Up The White Flag On Waste In Our Waterways

  2. Hog Farmers Receive Less than 25¢ for Every Grocery Dollar Spent on Pork Source: USDA

  3. http://www.dpichicken.org/newsletters/docs/timely%20topics%20june%2010.pdfhttp://www.dpichicken.org/newsletters/docs/timely%20topics%20june%2010.pdf "Led by the Maryland Department of Agriculture, a program has been created to help farmers earn money while providing polluters with the opportunity to increase their pollution to the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The nutrient trading program is an entirely voluntary program to help point sources of pollution, such as government sewage treatment plants, increase their nutrient loadings to receiving bodies of water as the population increases.”

  4. Water Quality & Human Health Impacts • “The most visible threat to maintaining good water quality in Iowa surface waters is the recent expansion of the livestock industry.”—IDNR (2001) • Evidence of groundwater and drinking water contamination

  5. “We do not believe everyone is doing their part to protect Iowa’s waterways.” – Des Moines Water Works

  6. 2007 Iowa Petition • Failure to issue permits • Failure to issue adequate permits • Failure to act on violations • Failure to seek adequate penalties • Failure to inspect • Zero permits for hundreds of hog confinement dischargers • Permits for open feedlots that are less stringent than federal standards • Dozens of factory farm discharges with no penalties • Weak penalties that fail to deter violations • Inadequate staff and resources to maintain inspection program

  7. EPA de-delegation petition regulations: …”The Administrator will respond in writing to any petition to commence withdrawal proceedings.” Federal Administrative Procedure Act: Citizens can compel agency action “unreasonably delayed.”

  8. EPA Region 7 report findings: • DNR is not issuing NPDES permits to CAFOs when necessary. • DNR has not conducted comprehensive inspections to determine whether unpermitted CAFOs need Clean Water Act permits. • DNR ignores its own enforcement policy when addressing permit violations. • DNR penalties for factory farm violators are inadequate. • Land application setbacks from waterways do not meet EPA requirements.

  9. "It's plain as a pikestaff the state needs to do a better job." - Karl Brooks, Regional Administrator, EPA Region 7

  10. Next Steps… • Work plan agreement • Factory farm permit rulemaking • Other opportunities to hold factory farms accountable

  11. Organize/Build Political Power!!

  12. Michele Merkel Co-Director, Food & Water Justice Food & Water Watch mmerkel@fwwatch.org www.foodandwaterwatch.org Tarah Heinzen Attorney Environmental Integrity Project theinzen@environmentalintegrity.org www.environmentalintegrity.org

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