Ten environmental groups are calling a new deal on animal waste regulations a serious step backward in the battle to clean up Chesapeake Bay
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday it won’t revise or expand current pollution control rules for large animal operations — like the Eastern Shore’s chicken farms — as it was bound to do in a 2010 court-approved settlement with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
The EPA’s decision fails to address massive animal waste pollution nationwide, Maryland environmental groups said Friday. Meanwhile, farmers’ advocates said no new regulations are needed.
“We are very disappointed to see the Obama administration backpedal on its commitment to strengthen federal pollution control rules on large agricultural animal operations,” the organizations said in a joint announcement.
Animal manure pollution laws not strong enough. Administration folds to lobbying pressure. Chesapeake Bay inherits more pollution from eastern shore corporate chicken farms. Photo by eatatez.com.
The groups, organized as the Maryland Clean Agriculture Coalition, are focused on toughening animal pollution regulation. It also wants more public scrutiny of pollution regulation efforts on farms in order to find out whether programs are working.
They urged the EPA to instead “aggressively pursue including more polluting farms within the regulatory framework through changes to its Clean Water Act rules.”
“Allowing EPA to avoid any kind of meaningful CAFO regulation is not going to result in cleaner waterways anywhere, and certainly not in the bay,” said Scott Edwards, co-director of Food and Water Justice., the legal arm of Food and Water Watch. “With the federal government refusing to do its job when it comes to CAFOs and water pollution, its critical that citizens continue to push EPA to do a better job.”
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