The U.S. EPA is taking steps to propose new effluent limitation standards for meat and poultry processing plants. A new episode of Food Processing’s Food For Thought Podcast provides the latest updates on the proposal’s process and warns against the impacts of a rushed proposal.
In the episode, Chris Young, executive director of the American Association of Meat Processors (AAMP) shares some potential updates to EPA’s proposal and discusses why his organization hopes that EPA will better consider small to mid-sized processors.
“Basically what is taking place is they’re updating those guidelines to now including the testing for phosphorus and phosphate as well as increasing what they’re looking at as far as nitrogen,” said Young.
AAMP members had the opportunity to hear from EPA about the proposal process. After a webinar, the organization became concerned about the costs of compliance — initial compliance may cost anywhere from $700,000 to over $4 million in capital costs, with as much as $500,000 annually afterwards for continued compliance.
In addition, the organization was concerned that EPA is not yet familiar enough will small and mid-sized facilities.
“EPA has not done enough in understanding the industry, especially the small side, to be able to understand what the wastewater is coming out of those small plants and what the impact will be in their rural areas,” said Young. “Our concern is that they’re moving forward too fast and that we’re going to see a lot of small plants in rural America negatively affected.”
Listen to the full podcast episode, “EPA Should Not Rush Proposal on Update to Effluent Limitations for Meat and Poultry Products,” on Food Processing, an Endeavor Business Media partner site.
