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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACTS: Waterkeeper (914) 674-0622 ext. 204 Sierra Club: Eric Huber (303) 449-5595 (Regarding Michigan specific
issues: Anne Woiwode (517) 484-2372) NRDC: Melanie Shepherdson (202) 289-2393 or Elliott Negin (202)
289-2405 FEDERAL RULE THREATENS PUBLIC HEALTH,
CONSERVATION GROUPS SAY rule violates the Clean Water Act by allowing large-scale livestock
farms to apply animal waste to land without federal or state oversight or
public input, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Waterkeeper Alliance v. EPA resulted from a lawsuit filed by three conservations groups, which charged that the rule shielded factory
farms from liability for damage
caused by animal waste pollution. (see today’s decision at http://www.sagady.com/cafo/Water%20Keeper_v_EPA_decision_2_28_05.pdf
) In The groups, Waterkeeper Alliance, Sierra Club and NRDC (Natural
Resources Defense Council), filed the suit in March 2003. The Environmental Protection Agency had issued the rule in February 2003 under a 1992
consent decree between the agency and NRDC. It went into effect in April of
that year. ((For
a copy of the court ruling, contact Elizabeth Heyd at eheyd@nrdc.org.) "These regulations were the product of a conspiracy between a
lawless industry and compliant public officials in cahoots to steal the public trust," said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president of the Waterkeeper
Alliance and an NRDC senior attorney. "I’m grateful that the court
has taken the government and the barons of corporate agriculture to the woodshed for
a well-earned rebuke." Thirty years ago, Congress identified concentrated animal feeding operations as point sources of water pollution to be regulated under
the Clean Water Act’s water pollution permitting program. The scale
of animal production at individual operations has dramatically increased since
then, and factory farms today produce 500 million tons of manure a year. In December 2000, EPA proposed a new rule with initiatives that would have protected the environment, but the Bush administration stripped them
from the final rule after agribusinesses objected. Under the Bush administration rule, animal factories were able to
continue to dump millions of gallons of liquefied manure into open pits, called lagoons, and then spray the liquid over fields. Typically the manure
runs off the fields into nearby streams or seeps into underground water supplies, polluting water with viruses, bacteria, pesticides, antibiotics, hormones and excessive nutrients. The court found that: The rule illegally allowed factory farms to write the part of their
permits that limit spraying manure on fields without state or federal review or approval--and without notifying the public. The EPA had failed to require factory farms to use the necessary technological controls to reduce bacteria and other pathogens from
their pollution. The rule violated the Clean Water Act by exempting factory farms from meeting water quality standards. "The court agreed that polluters can’t be trusted to write
their own permits," said Melanie Shepherdson, an attorney with NRDC’s
water program. "They have to be held accountable because they pose such a major
threat to public health." "The court agreed that there is a better way than the Bush
administration’s plan," said Eric Huber, a Sierra Club attorney. "When
technology and existing law can keep animal waste out of our rivers, why should
Americans have to settle for a plan that puts polluters before the public?" ### Waterkeeper Alliance is an international grassroots organization
connecting and empowering 129 local Waterkeeper programs. Each Waterkeeper program
is the voice for their waterway, serving as the investigator, advocate, scientist, educator and lawyer for their local waterbody. More
information is available at www.waterkeeper.org. Inspired by their personal connection to nature, the Sierra
Club’s more than 700,000 members work together to protect the planet. The Sierra
Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit
organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has more than 1 million members and e-activists nationwide, served from
offices in NRDC is available at its Web site, www.nrdc.org. |