Stronger Regulations Needed for CAFOs

March 2017

CAFO Interior

More confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are planned for the Heart of Illinois and other parts of the state. This brings concerns for the environment and public health. The group Illinois Citizens for Clean Air and Water (ICCAW) says the negative impacts caused by large-scale industrial confinement operations need to be addressed by fixing the state’s broken regulatory system. A few of the reforms suggested by ICCAW include:

  • Allow county boards to convene meaningful hearings and issue binding recommendations to the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) on the siting of new operations. Currently, county boards can only issue non-binding recommendations to the IDOA regarding the siting of new facilities in their communities. Many counties in Illinois have issued negative recommendations to the IDOA regarding new facility proposals, yet IDOA has issued those permits regardless of those county boards’ wishes. Counties in Illinois should have the same level of control over CAFOs as they do over wind farms or landfills, not less. Final decisions should rest with those that know local conditions; land use patterns; community growth trends; economic development plans and needs, etc.

  • Create setbacks from existing surface waters. Surface waters are not properly protected in Illinois and peer reviewed research demonstrates that wells, ditches and waterways near CAFOs show contamination with drug residues, antibiotic resistant bacteria, and more. As it stands now, a livestock facility can be built on top of a waterway in Illinois, as there are no setbacks under the Illinois Livestock Management Facilities Act (LMFA). Setbacks from waterways need to be established.

  • Require all CAFOs to register with the Illinois EPA (IEPA), so the agency actually develops and maintains an accurate location database. The IEPA is the agency with the primary responsibility to regulate pollution from these operations once they are in operation. However, the IEPA does not yet have accurate accounting for all the CAFOs in the state despite being under the scrutiny of USEPA for this problem since a citizen petition was filed in 2008. This is a serious public health, food safety and food security issue.

According to ICCAW these and other common sense reforms need to be put in place in order to protect the environment, public health and property rights of citizens in Illinois. The states, with large livestock production sectors, surrounding Illinois have stronger regulations than this state. If regulations can be followed in other states, they can be followed here as well. This is not just a matter of concern for rural areas. Streams polluted by animal waste flow into rivers and drinking water for residents downstream may be affected.

Now is the time to contact your state legislators to demand change.

To learn more about CAFOs: