Raising livestock may be a ‘smelly’ business, but that hasn’t stopped the federal courts from ordering the Environmental Protection Agency to move ahead with manure emission reporting requirements.
EPA issued guidance to producers and is expected to get more time to educate producers on the manure emission reporting requirement, after losing a court petition to allow a farm exemption. The Washington, D.C. federal appeals court insists, the law’s the law—even when it comes to livestock waste.
National Pork Producers’ Michael Formica argues, the whole thing ‘stinks’.
But how can hog farmers, cattle ranchers or other livestock producers tell when they’re in violation? Are there manure-meters?.
Formica says the National Response Center has 17 employees who handle 30,000 calls a year. Suddenly, they’ll have another 100,000-some calls not about oil or chemical spills, or rail car explosions, but about manure smells.
Formica claims the Coast Guard and EPA want nothing to do with the new rule. But he says failure to comply could mean fines or lawsuits by neighbors or the Humane Society.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.