EPA settles lawsuit with enviros over factory farms and vows to step up water-pollution enforcement

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced it will take tougher action to regulate factory farms. "The EPA has agreed to propose a rule that will require concentrated animal feeding operations to report detailed data to the agency every five years, including information on type and capacity of manure storage facilities, quantity of manure generated, available land acreage to apply manure and how excess manure is disposed of." Sindya N. Bhanoo of The New York Times reports on the Green blog. This week EPA reached a settlement with environmental groups who filed a lawsuit last year arguing that the agency needs to pay closer attention to the effects of the livestock industry on waterways.

"Believe or not – the EPA and the public don’t have this basic information for thousands of factory farms because historically many have been able to avoid pollution control requirements," John Devine, an attorney for the National Resources Defense Council, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit, told Bhanoo. The groups say animal waste, bacteria and parasites from chickens, pigs and cows drain into streams and rivers, posing a threat to human health. "EPA has committed to proposing the rule by May 25, 2011, and finalizing it by May 25, 2012" Bhanoo writes. (Read more)