Release No. 0513.02
of
USDA-EPA briefing regarding a new
Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO)
rule with
Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman and
Environmental
Protection Agency Administrator, Governor
Christie Todd Whitman
At the
Environmental Protection Agency
Monday, December 16, 2002
- - -
MODERATOR: Good afternoon. Welcome
to EPA, and I'm delighted you're so interested to talk about CAFOs that you're
here today. We have two excellent
speakers on the subject. So without
further ado, allow me to introduce the Administrator of EPA, Governor Whitman.
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: Thank you, Joe, and thank you all for being here. And I know you've already had a technical
briefing, and we'll have more technical briefings as we go forward, but I just
wanted to make the point that yesterday the Environmental Protection Agency
really did accomplish something that is historic. We took a major step toward making America's waters cleaner and
purer by placing new controls on animal manure and wastewater generated by
large livestock operations.
Last night, we issued the
final rule that will help reduce what has been identified as a growing problem,
and I think that's one of the important things to remember. This represents a change in the way
agriculture has done business, and so it is an evolving issue with which we
have been dealing, and that's the fact that animal waste generated by concentrated
animal feeding operations pose a real threat to the health of America's waters.
There are an estimated
238,000 livestock operations in the United States today. The animals in these operations, from beef
and dairy cattle to swine and poultry, generate some 500 million tons of manure
every day. Now, while much of that
manure is used to fertilize crops and increase agricultural yields, a
substantial amount of it can't be used that way. That's because, increasingly, there are a large number of animals
in small, confined areas in geographic locations, and that means that the
disposal of their waste can pose a larger challenge to the environment and its
neighboring communities because of the concentration.
As a result, the nutrients
in the waste, especially the nitrogen and phosphorous, are finding their way
into America's lakes, rivers, estuaries, and bays and oceans in increasing
quantities. These nutrients, which are
beneficial on the land in the appropriate amount, can damage the health of our
waters when they are introduced in excessive concentrations and amounts. They promote algae growth, which causes
eutrophication, robbing oxygen from the water, and that has a host of problems
that it causes in the water, and to aquatic life, and spoiling our once
beautiful waterways.
This new rule will apply to
about 15,500 of the largest livestock operations in the country. As a result of the actions we are taking,
the amount of phosphorous released into America's environment will be reduced by
56 million pounds, while nitrogen releases will be slashed by more than 100
million pounds.
In addition, the release of
over two billion pounds of sediments and nearly one million pounds of metals
will also be averted, helping to protect both the health of the environment and
of the American people. We also expect
to reduce nitrate contamination of drinking water wells and help reduce the
contamination of drinking water by metals, salts, and pathogens.
Having grown up on a farm,
and still living on that farm, I understand the challenges that a farmer faces
every single day. I also firmly believe
that those who make their living from the farm understand the importance of
sound environmental management and practices and care deeply about what happens
to the land and to the waters on and around their farms.
That's why we worked very,
very closely with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. I really believe this represents a new step in our
relationship. It's been over a period of
time, but we see it only growing stronger, and our partners in the ag community
have been important to us in developing this rule.
The key elements of this new
rule, requiring the large operators to develop and follow a plan for handling
manure and wastewater is something many responsible operators are already
doing, and they understand the importance of so doing. This rule will ensure that all of those who
should be taking those steps are going to do it and that they are reporting
their efforts to the state or to the Environmental Protection Agency every year
and that they have a permit that ensures that the plans that they have
developed are being implemented and are truly going to protect the environment.
This will also significantly
increase this rule of public accountability that is so necessary for a
successful community-based environmental protection.
We look forward to
continuing our work with the USDA and with the ag community to assure that the
goals that we all share--cleaner and purer water--are being advanced by our
efforts.
And now it is my great
pleasure to introduce my colleague and good friend, the Secretary of the
Department of Agriculture, Ann Veneman.
SECRETARY VENEMAN: “ Thank you very much, Governor Whitman, and it truly is a very important partnership that we have in working together. In fact, as you were making your remarks and we were talking about the partnership, it reminded me of the fact that when we were first announced, just two years ago this month, both of our appointments--I was announced a couple of days before Governor Whitman--and the President made it a point to have both of us together meet with the agriculture community and talk about some of the important interfaces that we have between the environment and agriculture.
“But maintaining and
improving water quality is one of our nation's most important environmental
issues, just as a strong agriculture industry is important to our food supply,
and both our domestic and international economy. So this new rule makes landmark changes in how water quality
issues, related to CAFOs, as they call them, Confined Animal Feeding
Operations, are addressed.
“The new rule is unique in
that it comes after very strong cooperation between the U.S. EPA and the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. And the
purpose of this cooperation is to find ways, in which producers can meet their
own, and society's, goals for environmental quality and good business
practices.
“The USDA stands ready to
provide assistance in an incentive-based approach, combining information and
education, research and technology, transfer direct technical assistance and
financial assistance through the EQIP and other farm bill programs. As you know, this farm bill substantially
increased funding for environmental issues, and particularly it increased
funding for environmental assistance for working farmlands, and this is exactly
one good example of how that assistance will be used, particularly through the
EQIP program, as we help to bring these farms into compliance with these
requirements.
“USDA is also in the process
of establishing a Federal Advisory Committee to provide advice and
recommendations to our department on meeting the growing challenges to
sustaining animal agriculture and environmental quality. These are issues that we take very
seriously.
“I think it's very important
that we've worked so closely with the Environmental Protection Agency and the
Department of Agriculture to get common-sense regulations that we can make
workable on the farms and that we can integrate our technical assistance
programs so that we can bring compliance into a reality.
“So thank you very much for
having me here today, and we appreciate the opportunity to work so closely on
this issue.”
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: Thank you.
We'd be happy to answer a
few questions.
Yes?
QUESTION: [Off microphone.]
[Inaudible.]
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: They absolutely move the country forward and, as you heard on the
number, I mean, when you're talking about 56 million tons less of phosphorous, 110
million tons less of nitrogen and 2 billion tons less of sediment, you're
talking about real numbers that are going to have an impact over time.
Of course, we are going to
be capturing a lot of the new operations that are coming on, and they will have
to file plans, and those things are going to be basically taking a moribund
program. We had this program. This has been out there for about 25 years,
and yet it hasn't been being applied in the way that it needs to be applied
because it was too confusing, the states didn't understand it, the farmers
didn't understand it. There were
exemptions to the rules that made it confusing.
This is a good step
forward. We are capturing for the first
time, for the poultry industry, the dry manure, there are land management
practices for the first time, and as we said, 15,500 operators are going to now
be required to get permits.
At the same time, we are
working very closely with agriculture to make sure that these are
understandable, that they're doable on the farm, and we can actually see them
implemented so we start to get the real benefits. And because of the openness of the process, we're going to be
able to see whether or not we are having the impact on the waters that we
expect.
Do you want to add anything?
QUESTION: [Off microphone.]
[Inaudible.]
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: Well, first of all, what we're doing is concentrating on the big
operations. The Concentrated Animal
Feeding Operations, the big ones, are the ones that produce about 60 percent of
the effluent that goes into our water.
That's what we're focusing on.
That's who we're getting. Those
are the ones that can make the real difference.
And the original proposal
had both; had keeping the--we won't use the animal units phraseology, but that,
how you count them--the same or cutting it down to 500. We accepted comments. We worked with the Department of Agriculture
and came out with what we thought was the way to get, what we know to be the
way to get at the biggest producers of this stuff, the biggest producers of the
effluent, and at the same time do it in a way that is going to be enforceable,
is going to allow us to see real impact, and change, and improvement to the
nation's waters.
I don't know if you want to
say anything more.
SECRETARY VENEMAN: “Well, I would only add
that these regulations impact the regulatory structure, obviously, but the
programs that we have, and use, in the Department of Agriculture to assist
farmers and ranchers apply to operators of all sizes who apply and take advantage
of the technical assistance that we have.
“So we certainly are
working, through our technical assistance programs, to try to make sure that
we're doing everything that we can to assist livestock operators in doing the
best that they can, in terms of water quality issues. It's very important--farmers feel it's very important--to make
sure that they have the assistance that they need to do the right thing for the
environment because, as we know, farmers are some of the best environmentalists
in terms of needing to keep good water, and air, and soil to produce the crops
that they produce.”
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: And don't forget, also, states can go further, if they choose, if
they feel there's a real problem in an area, and it's not being met by the
national standards, they can go further, but our object is not to put the
family farmer out of business.
Yes?
QUESTION: [Off microphone.] [Inaudible.]
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: Can you or Tracy answer that one? I'm sure we have it somewhere.
I don't have that off the top of my head. We can get you that answer, but let's just say when you're
capturing now 15,500 operations that are going to require permits, you can
assume that you are getting significant percentage wise reductions as
well. This is a major step forward.
We can get you the percent
of what it represents, but the thing is, we haven't measured it in the same
way, and don't forget, we've had this program now for 25 years, but we haven't
been enforcing it in a way that has given us the kind of baseline which enables
us to give perhaps as finite numbers as you'd like, but we know we're
expanding.
QUESTION: [Off microphone.] [Inaudible.]
SECRETARY VENEMAN: Ben, do you want to? Why
don't you come up here. Ben Grumbles
from our Office of Water.
MR. GRUMBLES: I don't know that we can put a percentage on what has to be
reduced. It's really I think the beauty
of the way the rule is laying out as the framework is that, on a site-specific
basis, consistent with the state technical standard, these plans will be
developed that will make sure that the most agronomically appropriate amount of
nitrogen and phosphorous will be applied, and it's really a site-specific
determination.
When we went through the
rulemaking process, the economic analysis, where we led to the conclusion that
there would be up to $350 million in benefits from this rule per year, a key
component was knowing that if we used the standards, and if they're
site-specific, you will find nitrogen and phosphorous reductions and that those
can be translated into real water quality benefits.
QUESTION: [Off microphone.] [Inaudible.]
MR. GRUMBLES: In terms of putting a quantified number on it, I know one of the
things we rely upon is the state water quality inventories and reports, in
terms of how much nitrogen and how much phosphorous is released in the waters,
but I'm not sure, I don't know if our technical folks have any specific
numbers, either aggregate numbers or state-specific numbers on that, but--
MS. FRACE: I think that the--
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: Why don't you come up here because this will record, whoever is
recording, and identify yourself, and identify yourself. They always like that.
MS. FRACE: Hi, I'm Sheila Frace. I'm
with the Effluent Guidelines Program.
I actually have those
numbers back on my desk. It was a
question I did not anticipate getting here today. If memory serves me correctly, the reductions are on the order of
30 to 40 percent of what is actually seen edge of field in the land application
areas for these operations. So you are
seeing a significant reduction, and that gives you a sense of how much we
estimate is actually currently over applied because of the unavailability of
land.
In terms of the operations that are covered, with the percent of nutrients that you see still at the edge of field, in some instances, we've made models in terms of how much of that actually makes it to waters at the U.S., and you see much higher reductions as you go closer to waters of the U.S.
QUESTION: [Off microphone.] [Inaudible.]
MS. FRACE: I believe so. I would
need to verify those estimates.
QUESTION: [Off microphone.] [Inaudible.]
MS. FRACE: It would be primarily looking at the nutrients, although we would
anticipate that for many of the pollutants the runoff would be similar;
although, particularly for like pathogens and metals, you often see transport
similar to what you see for phosphorous.
QUESTION: [Off microphone.]
[Inaudible.]
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: There are 44 states that will be--is it 44 or 43 now? Forty-four states with the delegated
authority that will be the permitting bodies.
The others, their problems will come through us.
QUESTION: [Off microphone.]
[Inaudible.]
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: The states are the ones who are going to be presenting the plans,
and then they will present them to us, and we will determine whether or not
they're sufficient.
QUESTION: [Off microphone.] [Inaudible.]
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: The states, the annual report that needs to be submitted by each
one of the permitted agencies will go first to the state, and then the state
will submit it to us. So it will go
through the state first.
QUESTION: [Off microphone.] [Inaudible.]
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: The state will be enforcing, yes.
QUESTION: [Off microphone.] I want to make sure I'm understanding the bottom line. We're understanding that under the new rule, if you are [inaudible] benchmark the number of animals that decline with CAFO, then you will be required to get a permit and [inaudible] plan.
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: Right.
QUESTION: [Off microphone.] Are
there exceptions to that, as a rule, or is that pretty much straight
across-the-board [inaudible]?
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: That's pretty much straight across. That's pretty much straight across.
QUESTION: [Off microphone.]
[Inaudible.] As you might
imagine, many environmental groups have already made it very well-known their
concern that the limited access to nutrient management plans would make it
difficult to track whether CAFOs are actually doing it, actually achieving
reductions in pollutants.
You said that the ability to [inaudible].
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: There will be annual reports.
I mean, short of allowing people to go onto the farm and try to help the
farmer make the decision of how to rotate his crops, which I don't think
everyone has the expertise to do, this is a very open process. It will require an annual reporting by each
one of the regulated entities on how they are doing in the management and the
implementation of the plan, and we will be getting, we will looking at what's
happening with the waterways.
So it's going to be very
open and people will be able to see it, but understand that farmers do rotate
crops, they do change use, and to try to say that you're going to have somebody
else on-site every six months or something, when you're talking about 15,500
operators, doesn't really make any sense and isn't reflective of how everything
works on the farm.
So this will be open because every year they have to submit a report to the state, and the state will deliver it to us, and that will all be available to those who want to see it.
QUESTION: [Off microphone.] [Inaudible.]
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: Yes, and this happens out on the farm.
QUESTION: [Off microphone.] [Inaudible.]
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: I very rarely refer people to newspapers, but read the New York
Times on Saturday, and I think you'll get your answer to that.
GOVERNOR WHITMAN: Thank you all very much.
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[End of Recorded Segment.]