EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler signed a final rule amending the emergency release notification regulations under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. The amendments clarify that reporting of air emissions from animal waste at farms is not required under EPCRA.
The final rule comes as first responders across the county have repeatedly reminded the agency that community-specific protocols are determined between local responders and animal producers well in advance of emergencies. These strong partnerships provide a platform for resolving issues when they arise without the need for a national one-size-fits-all approach.
Wheeler said, “This action eliminates an onerous reporting requirement and allows emergency responders and farmers to focus on protecting the public and feeding the nation, not routine animal waste emissions.”
The National Pork Producers Council applauded the EPA for finalizing its rule exempting livestock farmers from reporting to state and local authorities the routine emissions from their farms.
“Today’s rule is the final piece in the implementation of the FARM Act, which passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support last year and eliminated the need for livestock farmers to estimate and report to the federal government emissions from the natural breakdown of manure,” said NPPC President David Herring, and a pork producer from Lillington, North Carolina. “That bipartisan measure was approved because it was unnecessary and impractical for farmers to waste time and resources alerting government agencies that there are livestock on farms.”
The Fair Agricultural Reporting Method, or FARM Act, fixed a problem created in April 2017 when a U.S. Court of Appeals rejected a 2008 EPA rule that exempted farmers from reporting routine farm emissions under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). Commonly known as the “Superfund Law,” CERCLA is used primarily to clean hazardous waste sites but also includes a mandatory federal reporting component.
The appeals court ruling would have forced tens of thousands of livestock farmers to “guesstimate” and report the emissions from manure on their farms to the U.S. Coast Guard’s National Response Center and subjected them to citizen lawsuits from activist groups.
The EPA’s new rule exempts farmers from having to make reports to state and local first responders under the federal EPCRA — an adjunct to CERCLA — that they have “hazardous” emissions on their farms. The state and local first responders have been clear that they consider these reports unnecessary and burdensome. Instead, they prefer open lines of communication and information sharing at the local level with farmers, something the U.S. pork industry is already undertaking.
“The pork industry wants regulations that are practical and effective but applying CERCLA and EPCRA to livestock farms is neither,” Herring said. “Pork producers are very strong stewards of the environment and have taken many actions over the years to protect it. We applaud President Trump for relieving America’s farmers from filing these unnecessary reports,” he added.
