EPA Releases Draft For Animal Waste Management

August 9, 1999

The Environmental Protection Agency has released a draft guidance for managing animal waste in concentrated feeding operations. From 15,000-20,000 feeding operations will be required to develop comprehensive nutrient management plans and comply with Clean Water Act requirements.

A "Unified National Strategy for Animal Feeding Operations" was announced in March by EPA and USDA that sought to minimize water quality and public health impacts of animal feeding operations while ensuring that livestock production can be sustained. EPA estimates that 15,000-20,000 concentrated animal feeding operations will have to develop nutrient management plans since the larger facilities generally are significant contributors to water quality impairment, the agency says.

Most of the more than 400,000 animal feeding operations will be "encouraged" to voluntarily develop comprehensive nutrient management plans under the strategy. EPA has published a draft guidance manual and examples of permits. The guidance provides information on which facilities need to apply; "co-permitting" of corporate entities; land application of manure, and public notice, monitoring and reporting requirements.

The largest facilities are those with 1,000 or more animal units; also targeted are concentrated feeding operations with unacceptable conditions such as direct discharge into waterways and facilities that are significant contributors to water quality impairment.

A major objective of the strategy and the draft guidance is to accelerate issuing permits for large concentrated animal feeding operations by January 2000. The guidance is to aid state and EPA regional permitting authorities in meeting that goal. The guidance provides information on:

--Which facilities need to apply for a National Pollution Discharge and Elimination System (NPDES) permit;

--The key elements of a NPDES permit for concentrated animal feeding operations;

--The relationship between NPDES permits and comprehensive nutrient management plans;

--The types of NPDES permits that may be issued to concentrated animal feeding operations;

--Public notice requirements;

--Co-permitting of corporate entities that exercise substantial operational control over a concentrated animal feeding operation;

--Land application of manure and waste water;

--Monitoring and reporting requirements.

More information may b obtained at on the Internet. A paper copy of the draft guidance may be obtained by calling (202) 260-7786.