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Groups want EPA to control air around CAFOs

A coalition of environmental, animal rights and other groups has filed two lawsuits demanding the Environmental Protection Agency do something about controlling air pollution from large farms. The group says there are more than 20,000 large farms housing billions of animals in the U.S. which “release noxious air pollutants, including ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, volatile organic compounds, methane and particulate matter.”

The Environmental Integrity Project and the Humane Society of the United States filed the suits charging the pollutants pose a health threat to family farmers and rural residents.

The litigation calls on EPA to take action on petitions filed in 2009 and 2011. Those petitions requested the Agency to designate Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) as stationary sources of air pollution and to regulate ammonia emissions from them.  EPA is supposed to respond to citizen petitions “within a reasonable amount of time” but the rules do not specify how long that period is.  The two suits call for a response within 90 days.

The plaintiffs in the suits are the Environmental Integrity Project, the Humane Society of the United States, Center for Food Safety, Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Clean Wisconsin, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, and the Association of Irritated Residents represented by the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment.