News

Bill exempts livestock manure emissions reporting

A bi-partisan bill has been introduced in the U.S. House to exempt livestock operations from air emissions reporting requirements.  Missouri Republican Billy Long and California Democrat Jim Costa are lead co-sponsors along with 85 additional co-sponsors.  The House bill, similar to one introduced in the Senate last month, would exempt animal operations, including concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), from reporting manure emissions under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA).  Livestock groups are supportive, and American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Zippy Duvall says passage of the legislation is critical.

“Without it, farmers and ranchers must comply with a law that was never supposed to affect them – the Superfund program,” said Duvall, in a news release from the AFBF.  “Congress never meant to include agriculture under these reporting obligations, but because of a misguided court ruling, farmers and ranchers are vulnerable.”

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) contends that routine emissions from hog manure do not requires the Coast Guard to activate a national cleanup response.

“EPA exempted farms from CERCLA reporting because it knew responses would be unnecessary and impractical,” said NPPC President Jim Heimerl, a pork producer from Johnstown, Ohio, in a news release from the NPPC.  “We need to have that exemption reinstated,” he said, calling on the House and Senate to pass their respective bills.