Commentary: USPOULTRY
Litigation returns on the reporting of farm emissions
Effort is being driven by a legal appeal filed by the environmental groups after a US District Court rules the EPA narrowly defined reporting exemption under EPCRA for these substances is lawful.
Yet again, various environmental groups are seeking to have the courts mandate the reporting of emitting low levels of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide that is generated on farms as manure naturally breaks down. This latest effort is being driven by a legal appeal filed by the environmental groups after the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (DC) ruled the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) narrowly defined reporting exemption under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-know Act (EPCRA) for these substances is lawful.
When required, EPCRA reports are submitted to state and local emergency response personnel as a tool to warn the public about the emission of Extremely Hazardous Substances (EHS) and to help the emergency response personnel respond to an actual threat.
A similar program that requires the submission of emission release reports to the federal government occurs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). In 2018, Congress responded to a request to evaluate the logic for requiring these reports. They quickly recognized they were needless and enacted the “Fair Agricultural Reporting Method Act” or “FARM Act,” which exempted farms from CERCLA reporting requirements for emissions that came from animal waste.
It was the FARM Act and the close inter-relationship between the CERCLA and EPCRA reporting requirements that led EPA to provide the same narrow reporting exemption under EPCRA. EPA recognized more than two decades ago that these types of emissions do not rise to the level of threatening the health of individuals living around farms that raise animals and EPA’s own SCREEN3 dispersion model supports the fact that the public is not exposed to unhealthy levels of ammonia from poultry farms.
Nor do these emissions require an emergency response from state and local emergency personnel. This reality was highlighted by the National Association of SARA Title III Program Officials (NASTTPO), an organization made up of members and staff of State Emergency Response Commissions (SERCs), Tribal Emergency Response Commissions (TERCS), Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPCs), various federal, state and local agencies, private industry and the vast number of volunteers that perform emergency planning and emergency response activities for their communities. In a 2017 letter to the EPA Administrator the president of NASTTPO indicated, “We have had experience with EPCRA emergency release reports as well as CERCLA continuous release reports from farms primarily regarding ammonia from animal manure management. These reports are of no particular value to LEPCs and first responders and they are generally ignored because they do not relate to any particular event.”
Since submitting the original reporting exemption petition to EPA in 2005, the poultry and egg industry continue to advocate for the continuation of the exemption. As intervenors in the District Court lawsuit and now the Court of Appeals lawsuit, U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, American Farm Bureau, National Pork Producers Council and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association will support and reinforce EPA’s decision to finalize the narrow reporting exemption in support of reducing pointless regulations.
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