The Environmental Protection Agency has announced it will hold off on imposing new regulations dealing with factory farms amid concerns about their link to water pollution. The decision has frustrated environmental advocates in Minnesota and elsewhere. The agency was responding to a 6 year old petition filed by dozens of groups wanting tougher enforcement of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, under the Clean Water Act. The EPA will instead form a committee to explore the matter, a process that could take almost two years.
Matthew Sheets, an organizer with the Land Stewardship Project, called it disappointing to see the status quo being maintained, pointing to pollution examples in Minnesota.
"One of the things - where we've seen a lot of the effects of all sorts of pollution from factory farms is in southeast Minnesota, [in what's] called the Driftless region, and in that area, there have been notices for nitrate pollution in the water," he said.
He added when those nitrates get into drinking water, they enhance the risk for conditions such as "blue baby syndrome." According to a 2020 summary from the Environmental Working Group, Minnesota has seen a three-fold increase in the number of CAFOs in the past three decades. Livestock groups praised the decision, arguing current regulations are effective and that producers are adopting climate-smart practices.
Sheets countered consolidation within agriculture has eroded the presence of family farms and said large-scale livestock operators can have a big influence over local decisions concerning regulations. Without new federal standards, opponents at the grassroots level feel like they are left alone on this issue, he said.
"If people on the ground who had to deal with the water pollution and the economic fallout from the consolidation that's happening had an ally in the EPA, that would have, I think, made them feel they actually could have a say in what was happening," he explained.
Sheets added Minnesota does offer some protections under statewide provisions, but suggested it is not enough to overcome the web of enforcement involving other levels of government. The EPA said it shares environmental concerns over the large livestock operations and agrees many may be in violation of the Clean Water Act. However, it added that studying the issue will lead to an informed decision regarding any reforms.
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Montana officials have denied a petition asking the state to designate the Big Hole River as "impaired" by pollution.
Two conservation groups collected data over five years and found levels of nutrients in the Big Hole River exceeded thresholds, in some parts, by twofold or threefold, which could harm aquatic habitats, contaminate drinking water and affect fishing and other tourism business. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality said the petitioners used the wrong metrics.
Guy Alsentzer, executive director of the conservation group Upper Missouri Waterkeeper, said it is an example of politics "undermining good science."
"At minimum, we feel that the state owes us a written explanation, with some detail, about exactly why it believes it can deny a petition that has clearly satisfied the scientific basis for developing a pollution cleanup plan," Alsentzer explained.
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality argued the petition's data does not abide by a state law passed in 2021. The federal Environmental Protection Agency, however, officially disapproved of the law.
Alsentzer has requested the EPA weigh in, adding once high nutrient levels are proven, it is up to the Department of Environmental Quality to determine the causes.
"In the case of most Montana rivers, it's going to be a combination of human land use patterns," Alsentzer noted. "Sometimes it's subdivisions, sometimes it's septics, sometimes it's a municipality and sometimes it's farm fields or big cattle feeding lots."
Alsentzer stressed keeping waterways healthy is both "good common sense" and "good economics." According to the Bureau of Business and Economic Research, Beaverhead County's hunting and angling economy adds an estimated $74 million to area households annually and $167 million to businesses and organizations.
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A new report found 122 million Americans drink water with high levels of cancer-causing chemicals, frequently from runoff at livestock factory farms.
Researchers at the Environmental Working Group looked at water systems from 2019 to 2023. They found 6,000 water systems at some point had unsafe levels of "trihalomethane," which disinfects water contaminated with manure. The city of Baltimore and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission tested above the Environmental Protection Agency limit for the chemical a combined 255 times.
Anne Schechinger, agricultural economist and Midwest director of the Environmental Working Group, said the pollution affects everyone in the state.
"You can live miles and miles from ag, but still have ag pollutants in your drinking water," Schechinger pointed out. "You might see this report and think, 'Well I live in a city. I'm not anywhere near ag.' That doesn't mean that livestock manure is not impacting your drinking water."
Higher trihalomethane levels in drinking water can cause colon or bladder cancer, heart defects and stillbirths.
Schechinger argued President Donald Trump could reduce pollution by unfreezing funds helping farmers use healthier agricultural practices. Funds are currently frozen as Trump's Department of Government Efficiency tries to cut spending it views as wasteful.
"We can be putting more conservation practices on farm fields, like stream buffers or grass waterways, that really stop the flow of manure into water," Schechinger recommended. "That's something that was intended for this year, but the Trump administration has frozen the majority of agricultural conservation funding."
Schechinger added consumers can protect themselves by getting a water filter. Filters can help take chemical runoff out of drinking water.
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By Dawn Attride for Sentient.
Broadcast version by Mark Moran for Iowa News Service reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collaboration
In a single day, Lee Zeldin, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has spearheaded an institutional reversal of longstanding U.S. environmental policies in what he calls "31 historic actions." From questioning the well established finding that greenhouse gases are harmful to health to eradicating Clean Water Act provisions, the deregulation blitz could lead to increased pollution and risk to public health, environmental groups warn. "We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more," said EPA Administrator Zeldin.
Weakening Water Quality Laws Garners Support From Farm Lobby
One controversial action is a set of proposed changes to the Clean Water Act, established in 1972 to regulate pollutants in U.S. waters and prevent contamination from industries like factory farms and mineral mining. In a 2023 Supreme Court decision, Sackett v. EPA, the Court narrowed the definitions of protected waters to exclude certain wetlands unconnected to "navigable" waterways. Although Biden's EPA revised protections to include this ruling, Zeldin argues his predecessors "failed to follow the law and implement the Supreme Court's clear holding in Sackett." He now seeks to further deregulate waterway protections.
"The previous Administration's definition of 'waters of the United States' placed unfair burdens on the American people and drove up the cost of doing business," Zeldin said on Wednesday.
For states like Iowa where roughly half of water bodies are polluted (thanks in part to the 109 billion pounds of animal manure produced each year by factory farms in the state), the Clean Water Act already doesn't do enough to protect water as it stands, David Cwiertny, professor of civil engineering and director for the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination at the University of Iowa, tells Sentient. It fails to meaningfully address non-point source pollution, and exempts major pollutant sources like subsurface agricultural drainage, he says.
"As a result, analyses have shown that Iowa has among some of the worst water quality in the nation based on impaired stream miles and lake area under the Clean Water Act. These impairments have endangered public drinking water supplies while also limiting recreational water access for Iowans," says Cwiertny.
The EPA's latest announcement may make matters worse. "It's hard to see water quality in Iowa improving with the proposed plans to rework WOTUS, which will most likely end up further reducing the number of water bodies protected by the Act," Cwiertny says.
Zeldin credited concerns from farmers and ranchers as a factor to the change, as attendee American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall said he was pleased with the decision, stating it provides clarity for farmers and will help them "protect the environment while ensuring they can grow the food America's families rely on."
Stacy Woods, research director for the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), said the EPA is "giving a green light" for industrial agriculture to pollute and drain valuable wetlands. "Big Ag interest groups like the Farm Bureau pretend to represent small family farms when they are really working for giant industrial agricultural companies who could not care less about draining, polluting and flooding rural America in service of their bottom line. Missing from this conversation are the voices of farmers who are invested in being good stewards of their land and who are actually part of the rural communities that benefit from wetlands," Woods said in a statement.
Crackdowns on Environmental Pollutant Regulations Will Have an Outsized Impact on Vulnerable Communities
Water wasn't the only thing on the agenda, as oil and gas regulations are also under scrutiny, along with clean air standards and termination of the "Good Neighbor" rule that requires states to manage their own pollution that can be blown into nearby states.
"EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin today announced plans for the greatest increase in pollution in decades. The result will be more toxic chemicals, more cancers, more asthma attacks, and more dangers for pregnant women and their children. Rather than helping our economy, it will create chaos," Amanda Leland, Executive Director of the Environmental Defense Fund said in a statement.
Ending or revoking such regulations means fewer protections for communities with high numbers of low socioeconomic status residents. Pollution also disproportionately impacts Black and Hispanic communities, due in part to historical practices like redlining, which meant rejecting financial services to those looking to move to a residential area, often based on race or ethnicity. This practice, as well as ongoing pollution and other inequities, leads to concentration of vulnerable communities near hazardous pollution sources. Research shows these communities have higher rates of asthma and poor mental health. The EPA also plans to shut down its climate justice offices across the country whose primary focus is to help those most affected by the burdens of pollution and climate change.
These latest policy moves are likely to be met with legal action from both sides; environmental groups have already promised to "vigorously oppose" Zeldin's "attack" on public health while Trump's FBI pledged to criminally charge climate groups who received funding from the Biden administration.
"Though [these actions] will not hold up in the face of science or the court of law, they already pose grave and immediate threats to people and the environment," Dr. Rachel Cleetus, the policy director with the Climate and Energy Program at the UCS, said.
Dawn Attride wrote this article for Sentient.
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