While this decision related to a HUGE hog
CAFO in Oklahoma, as the note below explains it applies to
large factory farms across the country:
The Sierra Club dealt another blow to the factory
farming industry today, with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that
Seaboard Corporation must report the ammonia gas pollution from its giant hog
operation in western Oklahoma. The
court held that the entire 25,000-head hog operation was a single
"facility" and that
Seaboard must report the combined emissions from all its waste pits and
confinement buildings. In an effort to avoid regulation, Seaboard had
argued that each pit and building should be counted separately. The appellate court found Seaboard's
arguments "unconvincing" and decided that reporting total emissions
from the animal factory will help protect public health and the environment.
As a result of the 10th Circuit's ruling, large factory farms across the
nation are responsible for reporting and dealing with toxic ammonia, which can
cause respiratory problems for people forced to breathe the polluted air. As
staff attorney Barclay Rogers summed up, "This decision will force
corporations to tell the public about the poisonous gases coming from these
factory farms and to clean up their act."
The
court's decision can be located at http://www.kscourts.org/ca10/cases/2004/10/03-6104.htm