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Today Senator Brater with a number of her Senate colleagues,
has introduced a package of 10 bills that would begin to properly regulate
large scale concentrated animal feeding operations in ·
Establish fees to be deposited in
CAFO Clean Up and Enforcement Fund ·
Provide definitions for
CAFO-related items ·
Set requirements for CAFO
operators and operations ·
Set requirements for animal waste
handlers ·
Establish procedures to land apply
manure ·
Promote odor mitigation strategies ·
Permit legal action against CAFOs
and agencies ·
Establish the CAFO Cleanup and
Enforcement Fund ·
Require water withdrawal
statements ·
Give back local control over the
siting of CAFOs The bills were introduced the day after a hearing in the House
Agriculture Committee on a the Animal Factory Polluter Bills (HB 5711-5716)
that seek, in part, to deregulate CAFOs and scare victims of CAFOs pollution
from submitting complaints to the DEQ. In a separate message is the press release from
Senator Brater and below that is Sierra Club’s statement on the AG SAFE
package. Please let us know if you have any questions about any of
the bills! Anne Woiwode Sierra Club
Applauds Introduction of the AG SAFE Bills Senate Bills will Protect
Family Farmers and Rural Communities from Animal Factory Wastes Statement by Anne
Woiwode, State Director, Sierra Club February 22, 2006 For
more than decade, rural Drinking water in the wells of rural neighbors and in
the intake pipes at community drinking water systems downstream are at risk of
contamination from run-off and groundwater contamination. Air pollution from
CAFOs is making rural neighbors sick and driving down property values as much
as 70%. Over the past year and one half Sierra Club has
investigated more 100 animal factories using maps, aerial photos, water
sampling and reports from neighbors, and determined that every one of them was
either currently causing water pollution or was designed in a way that would
lead to water pollution. Concentrated animal feeding operations are NOT
farms, they are industrial operations, but today The
AG SAFE package of bills being introduced by Senator Liz Brater is long
overdue. The future of agriculture in Anne Woiwode, State Director Sierra Club Mackinac ( 517-484-2372 fax 517-484-3108 Enjoy, Explore and Protect - www.michigan.sierraclub.org "We know what to do. We have everything we need
save the political will - which is, after all, a renewable resource. This is
the time. This our moral moment and [I am confident] we will rise to the
occasion." Former Vice President Albert Gore, at the Sierra Club |