News

US Court of Appeals dismisses CAFO rehearing request

Earlier this week a DC Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reconsider its decision that Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) should report their air emissions.

Dave Warner with the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) says environmental groups sued the EPA over the exemption and in April the DC Court ruled the exemption couldn’t stand.  In June NPPC and the US Poultry & Egg Association petitioned the court for a rehearing request arguing the lawsuit from the environmental groups lacked merit.

He tells Brownfield the organization is now seeking regulatory relief from the Environmental Protection Agency.  “What we expect will happen is that EPA will ask the court for a stay of enforcing these two rule on farms so they have time to figure out how they’re going to go about doing that,” he says.

Warner says if the decision stands, it would be a reporting nightmare for all parties involved.  “This information would have to be reported to a small unit of the US Coast Guard that would take these reports,” he says.  “It can’t handle these.  It can’t handle hundreds of thousands of reports from agricultural farms.”

Since 2008 farms of all sizes had been exempt from reporting under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and the Emergency Planning & Community Right-to-Know Act, which are meant to inform first responders of hazards that may call for emergency action.

AUDIO: Dave Warner, National Pork Producers Council