A matter of manure

Abstract

When you bite into a juicy steak, the last thing you’re probably thinking about is feedlots, and I don’t blame you. But between meals, you might consider one of the most serious ongoing threats to our water supply: “non-point source” (NPS) runoff from farms. Cattle, pigs, and poultry produce about 500 million tons of manure annually in the US – more than three times as much as humans – but the disposal of that waste has gone largely unregulated. According to the EPA’s latest National Water Quality Inventory report, agriculture is the leading contributor to NPS water-quality impairments, accounting for 60% of the river miles and half of the lake acreage affected by pollution in North America. A significant proportion of this comes from places that raise animals, not crops. For those who find it hard to imagine a turkey without stuffing, feedlots are those sprawling, malodorous operations filled with milling cows or chickens. In recent years, “concentrated animal feeding operations” (CAFOs) – housing 300 or more cattle, or 16 500 or more turkeys for at least 45 days – have become the focus of serious environmental concern. Runoff from poorly managed CAFOs can carry pollutants (including sediment, excess nutrients, and pathogens) into surface waters, and ground water can also be contaminated by seepage from animal waste. Airborne emissions are another problem, one that is often obvious when you drive past one. Regulators have long believed that CAFO discharges can be limited by appropriately managing and storing wastewater and runoff. Recently, the EPA proposed a solution to the problem, along the lines of the old adage, “the solution to pollution is dilution”. The final rule, published on February 12, strengthens existing regulatory programs for CAFOs, where more manure is often generated than is reported. Under the new rule, about 15 500 of the largest manure-producing facilities, responsible for 60% of the pollutants, will be required to obtain National Pollutant Discharge Elimin ation System (NPDES) permits. Currently, only about 4500 have permits. The rule also requires Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans (CNMP) to address nutrients, pathogens, and other pollutants. These can encompass feed management, land management, record keeping, and manure handling, storage, and application. However, the number of CAFOs covered by the final rule is much less than the roughly 39 000 that would have been covered under a rule proposed by the Clinton administration in 2001, which would have included many smaller farms. While the NRDC suits seek to tighten the regulation of CAFOs, the industry lawsuits were filed to attack certain aspects of the new regulatory authority on CAFOs, and to protect the individual industries’ positions. Environmental groups are also concerned about the Bush administration’s decision to drop a provision that would have required companies that produce and sell meat products to obtain NPDES permits. The environmental groups argue that large corporations should be held liable for the waste management practices of the contract farmers who actually raise the animals. Controversy has also arisen, understandably, over allowing farms to write their own permits for spraying diluted manure on fields as fertilizer, without agency oversight or public review. Under the EPA rule, CNMPs and strict rules for annual reporting will be required by 2006 as a way of regulating sprayfields. Once the plans are in place, the feeding operations will be required to submit annual reports to the EPA. EPA officials say they considered a number of alternative technologies for waste treatment and disposal, including manmade wetlands that treat waste, batch reactors, digesters, composters, and covered lagoons, but ultimately deemed those methods to provide less protection against NPS runoff than open lagoons. The American Farm Bureau Federation and other groups originally opposed to the Clinton rule have reacted, with certain reservations, more favorably to the new version than the one announced in 2001. They see the current administration’s version as workable and compatible with the environmental initiatives authorized in the 2002 Farm Bill. According to the EPA, the new rule will cost the industry about $335 million, and will provide between $240 and $335 million in environmental benefits. The agency says it will result in the reduction of 56 million pounds of phosphorus, 110 million pounds of nitrogen, 2.1 million pounds of sediment, and about 911 000 pounds of metals per year. So, although the smell may still seep through our car windows, we could see less feedlot pollution running into our waterways in the near future. And that could make your next chicken dinner even tastier. Douglass Rohrman