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Toxics:
Exempt Factory Farms from Toxics Reporting and Liability

Our Position: oppose
Bill Number: HR4341
Sponsor: Ralph Hall (R-TX)
Legislative Session: 2006

Large factory farms are major sources of pollution that foul our lakes and rivers and threaten drinking water supplies with pathogens and chemicals.  The air around factory farms is also contaminated, and has been linked to asthma, bronchitis, and other diseases.  Factory farms are the largest source of ammonia air pollution in the U.S.

Current laws require factory farms to report emissions of toxic chemicals like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, which come from decomposing manure.  One dairy operation reported releasing more than 5,600,000 pounds of ammonia in a year - more ammonia than the largest chemical plant reported. 

This legislation, HR4341, would create a loophole in our right-to-know laws by exempting factory farms from reporting their emissions.  In addition, the bill would exempt livestock operations from paying damages for the cleanup of water supplies polluted by their manure.

Status

Action Needed

Contact

Ed Hopkins
Director, Environmental Quality
ed.hopkins@sierraclub.org

Background

Over the last several decades, agriculture has changed dramatically. Small farms have increasingly been replaced by industrial-like facilities that confine thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of animals in small areas. As a result, factory farms produce an estimated 500 million tons of manure every year – three times the amount of waste the human population of the U.S. produces.[i] Unlike human waste, however, livestock waste is not treated. Dumped into pits and onto the land, manure emits health-threatening quantities of toxic gases into the air as it decomposes. Spills and runoff of manure from factory farms can destroy rivers and contaminate downstream communities’ drinking water supplies.

Although health threats and pollution from factory farms are poorly controlled under federal and state environmental laws, agricultural lobby groups and some members of Congress want to exempt factory farms from pollution reporting and cleanup provisions of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA).

These laws provide an essential safety net for protecting water supplies from livestock pollution and for understanding the scope of toxic air emissions from factory farms. The protections these statutes give are especially important because the Environmental Protection Agency and the states have failed to carry out key elements of the federal Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act

Reference:[i] Federal Register, Volume 68, Number 29. February 12, 2003.