U.S. Movement to Limit CAFO Pollution Emboldened by Michigan Court Ruling
By Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue
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A recent state court decision could transform how animal agriculture is regulated in Michigan, and potentially influence how other state and federal regulators oversee the industry’s mammoth waste stream, according to environmental lawyers and activists.
The optimism from environmental advocates comes after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled on July 31 that the state’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has full authority to require industrial animal agriculture to take much stronger actions to manage the torrent of manure waste polluting waterways. The closely watched case pit the administration of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer against the powerful agricultural industry, led by the Michigan Farm Bureau.
“The decision is extremely powerful language for EGLE to act,” said Carrie La Seur, the legal director of For Love of Water, an environmental law and policy group that intervened on behalf of the state. “It’s clear that EGLE gained a lot of authority through this ruling.”
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Michigan is one of many US states contending with rampant ground and surface water pollution caused by agricultural production. A key source of the pollution is the nation’s more than 21,000 large dairy, cattle, hog, and poultry operations, known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations or CAFOs.
The nationwide contamination extends across the ocean. On August 9, the Center for Food Safety, an environmental group, gave legal notification to a Hawaii “megadairy” of their intention to file a lawsuit in federal court. They allege the dairy has been illegally “discharging animal waste, solid manure, liquid manure, milk waste, and chemical pollutants” into the state’s waterways and into the Pacific Ocean.
Michigan has close to 300 CAFOs that feed most of the state’s 450,000 dairy cows, 4 million hogs, and 21 million chickens and turkeys, according to federal figures. They are responsible for most of the 4 billion gallons of untreated urine and feces and some 40 million to 60 million tons of solid manure generated by CAFOS in Michigan each year. The waste from these operations is stored in lagoons or spread onto farmland to act as fertilizer. In Michigan, regulatory figures show such waste is spread over about 600,000 acres annually.
Manure contains toxic levels of nitrates, phosphorus, and harmful E. coli bacteria – and the contaminants commonly leach into surface and groundwater across Michigan. The heaviest concentrations of the contaminants are found in areas near CAFOS. Discharges from Michigan CAFOs contribute to phosphorus pollution that causes toxic algal bloom in Lake Erie. Read the full article here.
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