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March 6, 1998

EPA Issues Draft Strategy For Animal Feeding Operations

EPA announced this week its draft strategy to regulate large livestock farms by requiring permits and inspections to keep manure out of rivers and streams. The draft strategy would apply Clean Water Act (CWA) authority to animal feeding operations (AFOs) that raise animals in factory-like confinement farms. The farms produce large amounts of waste but have been exempt from many of the pollution controls that apply to industry and POTWs. Section 502 of the CWA defines concentrated AFOs (CAFOs) as point sources and subject to NPDES permitting requirements. While existing regulatory definitions of AFOs and CAFOs are given at 40 CFR 122.23 and Part 122, Appendix B, EPA's regulatory efforts to manage animal manure or to promote participation in voluntary programs have been inadequate.

The draft AFO Strategy provides specific short and long term activities that EPA will take to expand existing efforts to minimize AFOs environmental and public health impacts, such as: expand compliance/enforcement efforts; focus on priority watersheds; improve CWA permits; revise existing regulations; and increase EPA/USDA coordination. EPA's plan includes a long list of proposals that gradually tighten restrictions on farms over the next seven years, requiring farms to obtain permits to produce waste, develop plans for proper waste disposal and undergo inspections to insure compliance.

EPA plans to distribute the draft strategy to a wide range of stakeholder groups for input in developing the final strategy. Furthermore, the strategy may be revised to reflect USDA's and EPA's coordinated efforts to develop a unified national strategy as called for in the Clean Water Action Plan: Restoring and Protecting America's Waters. AMSA's National Office will distribute copies of the draft strategy to the membership via an upcoming Regulatory Alert. Comments are due to EPA by May 1.

EPA's TMDL Advisory Committee Distributes Draft Report

On March 2, EPA's Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Advisory Committee released a draft Committee report which includes recommendations to EPA on improving the TMDL program. The draft report is a result of 15 months of Committee deliberation on key TMDL policy and implementation issues. The Committee has solicited public input on the document and plans to finalize their recommendations in May 1998. AMSA members should receive the draft report via Regulatory Alert RA 98-4. EPA will use the Committee's recommendations to assist in its development of proposed revisions to its TMDL program regulations and accompanying guidance in November 1998.

House Superfund Mark-Up to Continue March 10

On Wednesday the House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources & Environment convened to mark-up Superfund reform legislation H.R.2727. Opening statements were made by committee members before Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) adjourned the hearing to provide some time for consensus building on several important issues (with the announcement that mark-up would continue on March 10). Prior to adjournment, Boehlert offered a substitute to H.R.2727, which was unanimously adopted by the Subcommittee and includes the Innocent Owners and Operators of Sewage Treatment Works language negotiated by AMSA staff with committee staff. (See 2/27/98 FaxAlert.)