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Water Policy Panel

Water Policy Panel. Angela Hamm – Water Policy Director, Hoosier Environmental Council Bowden Quinn – Conservation Program Coordinator for the Sierra Club, Hoosier Chapter Jeanette Neagu – President, Save the Dunes Board of Directors.

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Water Policy Panel

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  1. Water Policy Panel Angela Hamm – Water Policy Director, Hoosier Environmental Council Bowden Quinn – Conservation Program Coordinator for the Sierra Club, Hoosier Chapter Jeanette Neagu – President, Save the Dunes Board of Directors

  2. Hoosier Environmental Council Water Policy Priorities Angela Hamm, Water Policy Director Falon French, Water Policy Associate

  3. Confined Feeding • Raising of animals for food, fur or recreation in lots, pens, ponds, sheds or buildings • Confined, fed and maintained for at least 45 days during any year • Any animal feeding operation engaged in the confined feeding of at least 300 cattle, or 600 swine or sheep, or 30,000 fowl

  4. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations • CAFO Animal Threshold Numbers: 700 mature dairy cows 2,500 swine 55,000 turkeys, 30,000 laying hens or broilers (with a liquid manure handling system) 125,000 broilers (with a solid manure handling system) • These farms are defined as point sources by the CWA and are required to obtain permit coverage

  5. Animal Waste • Collected and stored in pits, tanks, lagoons and other storage devices • Applied to area fields as fertilizer • When stored and applied properly it provides a natural source of nutrients for crop production

  6. Environmental and Health Concerns • Manure can leak or spill from storage pits, lagoons or tanks • Improper application of manure to the land can impair surface or ground water quality • Overuse of antibiotics can lead to antibiotic resistance in humans

  7. Indiana • 625 CAFOs produce more than 80% of livestock raised in Indiana • Approximately 3,000 regulated farms • 3.6 million hogs

  8. Location of industrial agriculture operations in Indiana

  9. Muncie Sow Unit Who Cleans Up when the hog farm goes bankrupt? • 4.5 million gallons of manure deliberately spilled into a ditch eventually made its way into the Mississenawa River killing 1,017 fish • IDEM had declared an emergency and planned to transport 4-5 million gallons of manure to Indianapolis for treatment at a wastewater treatment plant at a cost of aprox. $405,000 • Cost of over $200,000

  10. Randolph County Fish Kill • 232,000 gallons of hog manure applied onto a field upstream of a major fish kill during rainy weather in June • Over 106,000 fish died in Bear Creek and the Mississinewa River the weekend of June 19-20 • Producer subsequently admitted to land applying additional manure on an adjacent field. The fields were empty

  11. Grand Lake St. Mary’s, Ohio • 80% of Grand Lake watershed is farmland • 629,504 tons of manure produced every year • Majority of the problem results from the land application of manure and commercial fertilizers • July 30, 2010 Action Plan has significance for Indiana as Ohio has determined to “Foster efforts to export more manure from the watershed” • 90% of the chicken manure and 75% of the turkey manure (90,000 tons in 2008) is sold out of state and exported by poultry litter brokers • Ohio has requested EQIP funds to facilitate the transport of hog manure to Indiana

  12. Legislation • Financial assurance package • Phase out of non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in livestock • Phosphorous Free Lawn Fertilizer • Out of State import of waste • Satellite manure lagoons • Staging and storage of manure • Increased setbacks

  13. What You Can Do • Support laws that hold industrial agriculture accountable • Contact your legislator and advocate for • industry financial assurance • a ban on the use of antibiotics in livestock for feed efficiency and growth promotion • increase setbacks from Indiana waterways • Postcards available at HEC table • Change your consumer habits.

  14. Coal • Numerous negative water quality impacts of coal that occur through its mining, processing, burning, waste storage and transport including, acid mine drainage, burial of streams and rivers, coal sludge disposal, deposition from coal fired power plants, and coal ash

  15. Coal ash - a byproduct of burning coal for electricity Ash contains concentrated levels of heavy metals and minerals: arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium, thallium, boron, and many others Coal Ash Waste

  16. Indiana • 3rd highest producer of coal ash, 1st in tons stored • 53 surface ponds (most in nation), mostly unlined, where coal ash is mixed with water • Unlined ponds allow leaching into groundwater • Town of Pines and East Mt. Carmel: groundwater/drinking water contamination

  17. States currently set standards for coal ash; Indiana is failing to protect the health of its citizens U.S. EPA in current rulemaking process; comment period through November 19, 2010 Proposed two options: coal ash classified as Subtitle C (hazardous waste) will protect the health of Hoosiers; other option will allow the state to continue with current lack of health safeguards Please weigh in! www.hecweb.org

  18. Questions • Angela Hamm, Water Policy Director, Hoosier Environmental Council • ahamm@hecweb.org • (317) 685-8800 ext. 116 • Falon French, Water Policy Associate, Hoosier Environmental Council • ffrench@hecweb.org • (317) 685-8800 ext. 101

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