U.S. motion to restrict CAFO air pollution emboldened by Michigan courtroom ruling

A latest state courtroom resolution might rework how animal agriculture is regulated in Michigan, and doubtlessly affect how different state and federal regulators oversee the business’s mammoth waste stream, in keeping with environmental legal professionals and activists. 

The optimism from environmental advocates comes after the Michigan Supreme Court docket dominated on July 31 that the state’s Division of Surroundings, Nice Lakes, and Power (EGLE) has full authority to require industrial animal agriculture to take a lot stronger actions to handle the torrent of manure waste polluting waterways. The intently watched case pits the administration of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in opposition to the highly effective agricultural business, led by the Michigan Farm Bureau.

“The choice is extraordinarily highly effective language for EGLE to behave,” stated Carrie La Seur, the authorized director of For Love of Water, an environmental regulation and coverage group that intervened on behalf of the state. “It’s clear that EGLE gained quite a lot of authority by means of this ruling.”

Michigan is certainly one of many states contending with rampant floor and floor water air pollution brought on by agricultural manufacturing. A key supply of the air pollution is the nation’s greater than 21,000 massive dairy, cattle, hog, and poultry operations, often known as concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.

The nationwide contamination extends throughout the ocean. On Aug. 9, the Heart for Meals Security, a nationwide nonprofit environmental and advocacy group, gave authorized notification to a Hawaii “mega dairy” of their intention to file a lawsuit in federal courtroom. They allege the dairy has been illegally “discharging animal waste, strong manure, liquid manure, milk waste, and chemical pollution” into the state’s waterways and into the Pacific Ocean.

Michigan has near 300 CAFOs that feed many of the state’s 450,000 dairy cows, 4 million hogs, and 21 million chickens and turkeys, in keeping with the latest USDA Agriculture Census. They’re answerable for many of the 4 billion gallons of untreated urine and feces, and a few 40 million to 60 million tons of strong manure generated by CAFOS in Michigan annually, in keeping with federal and state knowledge The waste from these operations is saved in lagoons or unfold onto farmland to behave as fertilizer. In Michigan, federal ag census figures present such waste is unfold over about 600,000 acres yearly.

Manure incorporates poisonous ranges of nitrates, phosphorus, and dangerous E. coli micro organism. The contaminants generally leach into floor and groundwater throughout Michigan, with the heaviest concentrations present in areas close to CAFOs. Discharges from Michigan CAFOs contribute to phosphorus air pollution that causes poisonous algal bloom in Lake Erie.

“For many years, industrial livestock operations have threatened public well being and the surroundings in communities throughout Michigan. We’re hopeful that EGLE will now take significant measures to carry these amenities accountable for his or her air pollution, setting a robust instance for regulatory companies throughout the nation,” stated Lynn Henning, a Michigan farmer and program director for the Socially Accountable Agriculture Undertaking, which opposes CAFOs.

Subsequent steps?

Tim Boring, the director of the Michigan Division of Agriculture and Rural Growth, stated the courtroom ruling higher positions the state “to safeguard water high quality,”.

EGLE spokesman Hugh McDiarmid Jr. stated state regulators have “not but decided on subsequent steps.”

However environmental attorneys stated EGLE now has the authority to take a spread of actions, together with requiring CAFOs deal with manure in wastewater amenities to take away poisonous chemical compounds and micro organism earlier than it’s unfold on fields.

EGLE might additionally require CAFOs to put in sensing and monitoring networks to make sure that manure storage tanks and lagoons are usually not leaking and watersheds are usually not being polluted, they stated. The company might additionally require animal agriculture to fulfill state limits for phosphorus, micro organism and different pollution in state waters’ and will restrict the variety of animals housed in a CAFO.

“It (EGLE) can now clearly do what is critical to guard water high quality in Michigan,” stated Tyler Lobdell, workers lawyer for Meals and Water Watch, a nationwide environmental regulation and coverage group that has petitioned the U.S. Environmental Safety Company  to manage CAFO wastes. “It’s absolutely empowered to rein in manufacturing unit farm air pollution.”

The Michigan Farm Bureau didn’t reply to requests for remark. However the group stated on its web site that the courtroom ruling was “disappointing” and can make it tougher for agricultural producers to do enterprise within the state.

In the meantime, CAFO opponents in different states stated they have been inspired by the Michigan resolution.

“It means loads for Wisconsin,” stated Lisa Doerr, a hay farmer who labored with Wisconsin communities to go ordinances blocking CAFO improvement.  “The Michigan ruling is a beacon of hope for all these rural communities coping with big livestock factories.”

In Indiana, Sam Carpenter, govt director of the Hoosier Environmental Council, stated the Michigan ruling was an instance of measures his state ought to take to guard its waterways.

“This can be a uncommon win for water safety,” Carpenter stated.

Environmental advocates stated the ruling additionally strengthens work by an EPA advisory committee convened earlier this yr to “restore and preserve the integrity of the nation’s waters” by addressing discharges from CAFOs. The committee report is due subsequent yr.

Historical past of weak regulation

The July 31 courtroom resolution comes 20 years after CAFO oversight in Michigan was considerably weakened.  On April 22, 2004, Earth Day’s thirty fourth anniversary, then Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed amendments to the state’s main environmental safety regulation that included a little-noticed provision promoted by the Michigan Farm Bureau. The 2-line directive barred the state environmental company from issuing new guidelines to stem air pollution or enhance the situation of streams, rivers, lakes, and groundwater.

Over time that adopted, the state’s industrial-scale meat and milk operations grew to become bigger, extra quite a few, and rather more polluting. In 2020, EGLE tried to implement modest new necessities for the way CAFOs ought to deal with manure, together with restrictions on spreading in winter, and limiting unfold on fields already saturated with phosphorus.

The Farm Bureau and several other business associations sued in state courtroom, asserting that the brand new provisions have been “guidelines” that have been prohibited underneath the 2004 regulation. The Michigan Supreme Court docket 5-2 ruling acknowledged that EGLE has full authority to manage the business.

The plaintiffs included the Michigan Milk Producers Affiliation, Michigan Pork Producers Affiliation, Choose Milk, Dairy Farmers of America, Foremost Farms, Greenstone Farm Credit score Providers, and Michigan Allied Poultry Affiliation.

The teams are contemplating whether or not or to not ask the courtroom to rethink the case, the Farm Bureau web site states.

This text was initially posted by The New Lede.