Five environmental, animal welfare and community organizations filed suit in federal district court in Washington, DC, to force EPA to set air pollution standards for large livestock farms. The lawsuit asks the court to order EPA to act on a 2009 petition by the groups asking for the standards. “This failure to act is particularly egregious given the extreme risk to human health and welfare and the environment caused by aerial pollutants originating from CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations),” say the groups, the Humane Society of the United States, Association of Irritated Residents, Environmental Integrity Project, Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club.
There are 20,000 “factory farms” that house billions of cattle, hogs and poultry that create 500 million tons of manure annually, say the groups. They say the farms “emit noxious air pollutants, including ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, volatile organic compounds, methane and particulate matter.” During a teleconference, Iowa farmer Rosie Partridge said, “We have had to curtail our activities outdoors because of the stench” of hog manure. Tom Frantz, a California farmer, said, ” In Kern County, we have literally the worst air in the nation” due to a mist formed by air pollutants and dust.