New York appeals court says new farm manure rules not protecting water

All Things have the Positive Views & Negative View. The following statement from the court is the right facts.

The farms, it added, can generate each year millions of tons of manure, which carries potentially harmful pollutants including pesticides, bacteria, viruses, trace elements of arsenic and compounds such as methane and ammonia.

When properly applied, manure can be spread on fields and serve as fertilizer. But improperly applied, the court said, it can pollute.

These not mentioned about the treatment to the manure & the waste water after treatment issues.. certainly these is manure issue must treat with care, otherwise the ground water on earth would be further polluted. thus for our Drink water.

For the Great Health of our people Drink Water Safety is the Number priority.

FARM SCENE: New York appeals court says new farm manure rules not protecting water
By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press Writer
February 28, 2005, 9:51 PM EST

NEW YORK -- A federal appeals court on Monday agreed with environmentalists that new federal clean-water rules were not protecting the nation's waters from the manure pollution of large farms.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said it agreed with environmentalists who claimed in lawsuits that the rules failed to provide meaningful review of plans developed by the farms to limit the pollution.

The appeals court said the rules imposed in February 2003 by the Environmental Protection Agency were arbitrary and capricious and did "nothing to ensure" that each large farm was complying with requirements to control the pollution.

Its ruling requires the EPA to make changes so it can ensure compliance by the farms with the Clean Water Act, which includes "the ambitious goal" that water pollution be eliminated. It also said the agency must provide a process that "adequately involves the public" as it creates a new system.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, an international grass-roots organization connecting and empowering 129 local water protection programs, said he was grateful that the court had rebuked "the government and the barons of corporate agriculture."

"These regulations were the product of a conspiracy between a lawless industry and compliant public officials in cahoots to steal the public trust," Kennedy said in a release.

A telephone message for comment left with the EPA in Washington, D.C., was not immediately returned Monday.

The appeals court noted the average large farm raises 10,000 sheep, 55,000 turkeys or 125,000 chickens and the largest can raise millions of animals.

The farms, it added, can generate each year millions of tons of manure, which carries potentially harmful pollutants including pesticides, bacteria, viruses, trace elements of arsenic and compounds such as methane and ammonia.

When properly applied, manure can be spread on fields and serve as fertilizer. But improperly applied, the court said, it can pollute.

The appeals court rejected some claims by the environmentalists, including that the EPA failed to consider the best technologies to control pollution or that certain costs of pollution control can be demanded of farms because costs can be passed to consumers. It said the EPA had adequately explained that "farmers are at the bottom of a long food marketing chain, subject to imperfect market conditions."

It also noted that the EPA had done extensive data collection, visiting more than 116 large farms in more than 20 states, attending conferences, meeting with trade associations and accepting about 11,000 public comments on its new rules.

The EPA rules require large confinements _ defined as having at least 1,000 beef cattle and 2,500 swine _ to obtain water pollution permits every five years. Some medium ones _ with 300 beef cattle and 3,000 swine under 55 pounds _ may be required to get one. Different head count thresholds are set for livestock operations including sheep, chicken and turkeys.

Any farm required to have a permit also must have a plan spelling out how it will manage manure. Farmers are required to file annual reports summarizing their operations.

Forty-five states manage the program themselves while activities in Alaska, Idaho, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New Mexico and in the District of Columbia are managed by the EPA.

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