Bush EPA Planning Two-Year Amnesty for Factory Farm Polluters

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Bush Green Watch

 

February 10, 2005 | Back Issues

 

Bush EPA Planning Two-Year Amnesty for Factory Farm Polluters

 

During the past decade a new form of pollution has grown into a

serious problem--one the framers of the Clean Air Act could never have

anticipated. It is caused by the consolidation over the past decade of

countless small farms into huge, factory farms that raise thousands of

hogs, heifers and chickens in impossibly cramped quarters.

 

Euphemistically called " concentrated animal feeding operations, " or

CAFOs, the giant facilities also raise an enormous stench, as giant

piles of rotting waste produce clouds of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide,

volatile organic compounds, and particulates. Their emissions have

become so obnoxious that news reports regularly pop up when area

residents demand that these corporate farms clean up their mess.

 

There was little coverage, however, when on the day after last month's

presidential inauguration, one of the first acts of the second Bush

Administration was to hand these polluters a generous free pass.

Judiciously timed for release after the election--and on a day when

the story was certain to be lost amidst inaugural euphoria--the EPA

offered CAFOs more than two years' immunity from the Clean Air Act--as

well as from certain toxic discharge standards--in exchange for

participation in a program that would measure their air emissions.

 

The problem, according to Michele Merkel of the Environmental

Integrity Project (EIP), is that EPA's two-year pass is superfluous:

the Clean Air Act already requires polluting facilities to provide

this kind of data. As Merkel pointed out in an interview with Grist

Magazine, there is no need to paralyze law enforcement for two years

in order to collect it.

 

A former EPA attorney who brought the first CAFO lawsuit five years

ago, Merkel says the enforcement hiatus can mean increased health

risks for farm workers and nearby residents from emissions such as

ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. A 2002 study by Iowa State University

found widespread bronchitis in workers exposed to these pollutants.

 

In the same Grist report, Ed Hopkins, environmental quality director

at the Sierra Club, described one egg farm in Iowa that was found to

have ammonia emissions on a par with a fertilizer plant ranked as the

ninth largest producer of hazardous gas in the country.

 

Under the Clean Air Act, said EIP's Merkel, farms violating the law

can be fined $27,500 per day. CAFOs signing up for the new EPA plan

need only pay a " membership fee " of $2,500, plus a one-time penalty of

from $200 to $100,000 (depending on size) for " presumed " past

violations. That, says Merkel, is " chump change. "

 

Indeed, one of the biggest factory farmers, Tyson Foods, had ante'd up

$100,000 just the week before to enjoy an inaugural candlelight dinner

with President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

 

Environmentalists still have one hope for reversing EPA's amnesty.

Thanks to a tip obtained by EIP, an EPA plan to omit the usual 30-day

public-comment period was reversed when EIP prepared to reveal it

publicly. Knowing this would provoke unwanted headlines, EPA reversed

itself. A 30-day public-comment period is now underway.

 

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This story was jointly produced by BushGreenwatch and Grist Magazine.

For more on this story, visit Grist Magazine.