The new rule coming from the Environmental Protection Agency states that all big concentrated animal feeding operations must apply for a permit to control pollution under the Clean Water Act, according to government sources and environmentalists familiar with the rule.
EPA Administrator Christie Whitman and Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman were making the announcement.
EPA is requiring permit holders to develop a ``nutrient management plan'' that sets limits on how much animal manure can be applied to fields. Animal manure typically contains nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus but also pathogens, salts and heavy metals like copper.
Years in the making, the rule deals with the concentrated manure from corporate agriculture that has led to fights between livestock farms and neighbors complaining about health and environmental effects.
The court-ordered deadline results from a broader settlement requiring EPA to update technology standards for industrial sources of water pollution. Runoff from agriculture is the biggest source of pollution in rivers, streams and lakes, the government says.
In 1992, EPA and the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, an environmental group, reached a court settlement requiring the agency to update its technology standards for several categories of industrial water pollution.
After study, EPA chose the factory-style farms as one of the industrial categories that needed improvement. Large-scale animal factories produce 220 billion gallons of manure annually, the government says.
The rule covers concentrated animal feeding operations, large and small. The new ``duty to apply'' for a permit is aimed at the approximately 15,000 largest facilities with more than 1,000 ``animal units'' – the actual numbers of specific animals vary depending on their type. These operations are generally concentrated on small land areas.
Source: AP
