EPA, Factory Farms Strike Pollution Deal

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EPA, Factory Farms Strike Pollution Deal

By JOHN HEILPRIN

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?flok=FF-APO-

1155 & idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20060130%2F1827805520.htm & sc=1155

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration will let thousands of

factory-style farms escape severe penalties for fouling the air and

water with animal excrement in exchange for data to help curb future

pollution.

The Environmental Protection Agency has signed agreements with 2,681

animal feeding operations in the egg, chicken, turkey, dairy and hog

industries. They would be exempt from having to pay potential fines

of up to $27,500 a day for violations either in the past or over the

next four years.

On Monday, the EPA said its Environmental Appeals Board had approved

the first 20 of those agreements, selecting accords it thought were

representative of the whole. EPA officials said those approvals set

the stage for the remaining agreements to gain approval quickly.

The agreements include 10 swine-raising operations and 10 operations

that raise egg-laying birds. The board said it determined that the

agreements were consistent with the Clean Air Act, including its

penalty provisions.

Jon Scholl, EPA Administrator 's agriculture adviser,

said the agreements are the most efficient way of obtaining the data

needed to determine whether the animal feeding operations are

complying with federal air emission laws.

``This is a very important step,'' he said. ``This really paves the

way for the study process to begin.''

The EPA said its consent agreements with the animal feeding

operations will cover more than 6,700 farms in 42 states. Another

7,000 farms are covered through Tyson Foods Inc., but because

contract growers are independent business owners, the company said

only that it will gain the exemptions.

The participating farms range from relatively small dairy

operations, with perhaps five dozen cows, to large hog and dairy

operations with tens of thousands of animals. Randy Spronk, chairman

of the National Pork Producers Council's environmental policy

committee, said the agreements will allow the EPA ``to use sound

science to develop practical policies that work for pork producers

of all sizes and types.''

Pollutants to be monitored include soot and volatile organic

compounds, as required by the Clean Air Act, and ammonia and

hydrogen sulfide, as required by Superfund's emergency reporting

provision.

By signing on, the farms agree to abide by clean air, hazardous

waste and emergency reporting laws after the data is collected. They

would pay $2,500 into an EPA fund and agree to let EPA-approved

contractors monitor the air. The fund would pay for two years of air

monitoring at 28 to 30 farms nationwide at a cost of up to $500,000

each.

Companies also would have to agree to pay a civil penalty of

anywhere from $200 to $100,000, depending on the size and number of

farms they operate. Those fines would cover presumed violations,

past and present, and fend off potential liability four years into

the future, when the EPA expects to issue its air standards.

Without the deal, the air standards probably would take a decade or

more to complete, EPA officials said; with it, companies gain some

certainty about the science used to set emissions policies. Granta

Y. Nakayama, the EPA's assistant administrator for enforcement and

compliance assurance, called it ``both good environmental policy and

good business policy.''

Already, environmentalists plan to file suit challenging the new

consent arrangements.

``This decision is a great disservice for people who live around

large factory farms,'' said Ed Hopkins, environmental quality

director for the Sierra Club. ``It basically gives these farms a

free ride on the backs of the public. There's really nothing in this

that holds the polluters accountable for the toxic air emissions

they release.''

EPA officials say they retain authority to take immediate action

against any company if its operations pose an imminent or

substantial threat to public health, and the deal won't affect state

and local agencies' enforcement of their laws for corporate farm

operations. The EPA has settled two recent Clean Air Act cases

involving animal feeding operations.

The agency began work on the deal after the National Academy of

Sciences reported in 2002 that the EPA needed to improve the way its

estimates the air pollution from animal farms.

On the Net:

Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov

Sierra Club: http://www.sierraclub.org