In a step that overrides an appellate court decision, Congress included a provision in the $1.3 trillion government funding bill that exempts an estimated 200,000 large livestock farms from reporting emissions coming from manure and other animal waste. Hog, cattle and poultry groups said the exemption means farms won’t be treated like Superfund sites that create dangerous air pollution.
Otherwise, livestock producers faced a May 1 deadline to begin making the reports. The EPA removed farms from the reporting requirement in 2008 but was challenged in court. A federal appeals court eventually ruled in 2017 that the Superfund law included agriculture. Farm groups ridiculed the decision, saying routine emissions from manure were not a hazard that required a report to the Coast Guard to activate a cleanup.
“This is fantastic news for hog farmers,” said the National Pork Producers Council, which applauded Congress for “restoring the farm emissions exemption.” The poultry industry said “the burden of reporting emissions from the natural breakdown of manure has been removed by Congress” and said the exemption from reporting “low-level continuous emissions of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide” dated from the George W. Bush administration. Three dozen senators and 90 representatives sponsored bills in favor of the exemption.
“We were able to kill the notion that our farms and ranches will be regulated like toxic Superfund sites,” said the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
Environmental and animal welfare groups have tried through lawsuits and petitions to force EPA to set air pollution standards for large livestock farms known as CAFOs. They said the farm generate huge amounts of animal waste that pollutes waterways and releases noxious odors that force neighbors to stay indoors.