Petition to Adopt a Rebuttable Presumption that Large CAFOs Using Wet Manure Management Systems Actually Discharge Pollutants Under the Clean Water Act

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A coalition of over 50 environmental and community groups petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to adopt a presumption that large Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) using wet manure management systems discharge pollutants under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The groups argue that CAFOs are improperly avoiding regulation for polluting waters and should be subject to the CWA’s permitting requirements. The petition claims “environmental regulations have not kept pace with the transformation of the meat and dairy industry, leaving a significant number of industrial facilities largely unregulated.”

[To accompany Agency Update "Coalition Petitions EPA to Regulate Waste from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations" from Brooks Animal Law Digest Issue No. 162.]