Large Concentrations Of Animals A Potential Threat, Research Agency Concludes
Last updated Thursday, September 25, 2008 6:27 PM CDT in News
By Doug Thompson
THE MORNING NEWS
FAYETTEVILLE -- The federal Environmental Protection Agency doesn't know what impact large concentrations of farm animals have on air and water quality and needs to know, a research agency for Congress has concluded.
The EPA does not have data on farm waste because it lacks authority to regulate those operations, said Tom Riley, the director of public policy for the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. The EPA has sought that authority for years but Congress by law reserves regulation of farm wastes to states, Riley said.
"That's not an issue for regulators to decide," Riley said. "That's for our citizens and their government to decide."
Two counties in Northwest Arkansas "raised 14,264,828 broiler chickens that produced over 471,000 tons of manure" in a year, a recent General Accounting Office report said. "According to EPA Region 6 officials, the Arkansas-Oklahoma border is an area of concern due to the number of poultry operations -- primarily broilers, but also turkeys and layers -- within this area."
Arkansas was one of eight states mentioned as an area visited by the report's researchers. In North Carolina, for instance, "we estimated that the hog population of the five North Carolina counties" with the most growth in the industry "was more than 7.5 million hogs in 2002 and hog operations in these counties produced as much as 15.5 million tons of manure that year."
The number of "animal only" farms or "CAFOs" -- concentrated animal feeding operations -- increased 230 percent between 1982 and 2002, according to a GAO summary released Wednesday. That report followed up an earlier, more detailed report was issued Sept. 4. The number of animals in each farm appears to have increased too, the report said. The federal Environmental Protection Agency does not collect information on the environmental impact of these farms, making effective regulation of them impossible, the report concluded.
The EPA does not have authority to regulate "non-point source" pollution such as farm runoff, as opposed to "point source" pollution such as factory waste and city sewer discharges, the reports acknowledge.
Farms, however, are changing: "Over the last 40 years, diversified, independent, family-owned-and- operated farms that produce a variety of crops and a few animals are becoming a smaller share of the agricultural sector and are being replaced by fewer, much larger farms," the Sept. 4 report said. "For animal production, this change has meant a movement to significantly larger operations that can raise, for example, as many as 2 million chickens or 800,000 hogs at one facility at one time."
The trend toward large concentrations of animals, in particular, has granted the EPA "the authority to regulate water and air pollutants from CAFOs" as a point-source operation in some circumstances, the report continues. For instance, EPA has authority when and where federally administered waterways are concerned.
"It's almost self-evident that when you put, say, 30,000 hogs together you're going to create something that's hard to ignore," said Glen Hooks, the state executive director of the Arkansas Sierra Club, an environmental group.
The GAO's report came out after the EPA lost a federal court lawsuit where it sought to assert the authority to regulate large feed operations, Riley said.
The report's statement that the EPA doesn't have enough information on CAFOs to regulate them drew comment from 3rd District Rep. John Boozman, R-Rogers.
"It is refreshing to see Washington, D.C.-based government investigators admit they don't have a clear picture of what's going on out on our farms," Boozman said.
Arkansas farmers "are taking aggressive steps to implement the land management practices necessary to improve and preserve water quality," Boozman said. They need more federal resources and support from U.S. Department of Agriculture programs, he said. "My experience as a former cattle rancher is that most farmers recognize that they depend on the land and clean water for their livelihood," he said. "Most farmers want to be partners in conserving our land and water. What we need is more partnership and cooperation, not a heavy-handed government approach."
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tootsie wrote on Sep 26, 2008 4:00 PM: