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CAFOs will have more time to report air emissions

The National Pork Producers Council says more time is needed to prepare for new air emissions reporting requirements and supports EPA’s recent decision to delay a federal court order.

NPPC Counsel Michael Formica tells Brownfield the National Response Center is not equipped to process emissions reports that will be required from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).  “We’re talking two to four times more reports coming in in a couple of days than this center is set up to handle in a full year.”

A D.C. court ruled in favor of environmental groups in April, finding a 2008 EPA exemption for all but the largest CAFOs from reporting releases of hazardous substances to be illegal.  “We expect there to be somewhere between 40-100,000 farms that are going to have to make these reports.”

Formica says the EPA asked the Court of Appeals to delay enforcement of emissions reporting until January of 2018, and NPPC will work with their members and the agencies as the requirements become more concrete.

Since 2008, farms of all sizes had been exempt from reporting under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and the Emergency Planning & Community Right-to-Know Act, which are meant to inform first responders of hazards that may call for emergency action.

AUDIO: Interview with Michael Formica