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Yes to Cleaning Up Factory Farms |
by J.R. Pegg (Alternet)
The current administration thinks it's perfectly OK to let factory farms discharge waste into the nation's waters. A federal appeals court says the policy stinks.
The administration's policies to limit water pollution from factory farms violate the Clean Water Act and must be revised, a federal appeals court ruled recently. The court found the regulations failed to ensure that factory farms would be held accountable for discharging animal wastes into the nation's waters.
The ruling, released Monday by a three judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, is a major victory for environmentalists who filed suit against the February 2003 rules which would allow for factory farming to pollute the nations waterways with animal waste. Factory farms are estimated to account for 500 million tons of animal waste annually. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president of the Waterkeeper Alliance and an NRDC senior attorney, called the regulations the "product of a conspiracy between a lawless industry and compliant public officials in cahoots to steal the public trust."
"I am grateful that the court has taken the government and the barons of corporate agriculture to the woodshed for a well-earned rebuke," Kennedy said.
The decision continues a long-running engagement over how to regulate factory farms known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). CAFOs have emerged as the dominant force in the modern production of agricultural livestock as the size of livestock operations has grown over the past two decades. These operations produce some 500 million tons of animal waste annually - disposal and storage of this waste presents serious risks to public health and the environment.
"The court agreed that there is a better way than the Bush administration's plan," said Eric Huber, a Sierra Club attorney. "When technology and existing law can keep animal waste out of our rivers, why should Americans have to settle for a plan that puts polluters before the public?"
The current administration thinks it's perfectly OK to let factory farms discharge waste into the nation's waters. A federal appeals court says the policy stinks.
The administration's policies to limit water pollution from factory farms violate the Clean Water Act and must be revised, a federal appeals court ruled recently. The court found the regulations failed to ensure that factory farms would be held accountable for discharging animal wastes into the nation's waters.
The ruling, released Monday by a three judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, is a major victory for environmentalists who filed suit against the February 2003 rules which would allow for factory farming to pollute the nations waterways with animal waste. Factory farms are estimated to account for 500 million tons of animal waste annually. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president of the Waterkeeper Alliance and an NRDC senior attorney, called the regulations the "product of a conspiracy between a lawless industry and compliant public officials in cahoots to steal the public trust."
"I am grateful that the court has taken the government and the barons of corporate agriculture to the woodshed for a well-earned rebuke," Kennedy said.
The decision continues a long-running engagement over how to regulate factory farms known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). CAFOs have emerged as the dominant force in the modern production of agricultural livestock as the size of livestock operations has grown over the past two decades. These operations produce some 500 million tons of animal waste annually - disposal and storage of this waste presents serious risks to public health and the environment.
"The court agreed that there is a better way than the Bush administration's plan," said Eric Huber, a Sierra Club attorney. "When technology and existing law can keep animal waste out of our rivers, why should Americans have to settle for a plan that puts polluters before the public?"
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