- After years of legal challenges, pollution regulation for Michigan’s concentrated animal feeding operations near completion
- The state has been operating under regulation first issued in 2015, as the dispute reached the Michigan Supreme Court
- Environmentalists are calling for stricter guidelines on manure application, citing health and water quality concerns
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) is hosting a public hearing Friday on a policy that could shape pollution controls over the state’s factory farms for years to come.
The agency is reviewing a contested environmental permit that would let the state impose stricter pollution restrictions on factory farms, including stronger oversight on how much manure they can spread on fields and limits on wastewater discharge.
Researchers and regulators have raised concerns about the environmental impact of large feedlots known as concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, which store manure that can run off into nearby waterways.
The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which was first issued by EGLE in March 2020, has been delayed from taking effect after facing a series of legal challenges by a coalition of farmers and agricultural associations who disputed the agency’s ability to issue new rules.
After four years of proceedings, the Michigan Supreme Court intervened last year, siding with EGLE and affirming the department’s ability to draft pollution controls.
In a parallel effort, the farmers coalition also petitioned the Michigan Office of Administrative Appeals to dispute the 2020 regulations.
An administrative law judge in January ruled that EGLE does have jurisdiction to issue the permit, but granted some modifications, including lifting winter restrictions on March manure spreading.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs and the Michigan Farm Bureau, which lobbies for agricultural policy on behalf of the group’s 42,000 members, did not respond to Bridge Michigan’s request for comment in time for this story’s publication.
The Environmental Law & Policy Center, an environmental advocacy group that’s pushed for stronger pollution controls throughout the legal battle, is making a plea to strengthen the regulation before its final approval by EGLE director Phil Roos.
“We have our strong opinions about a lot of specifics that should and shouldn’t be in the permit,” said Katie Garvey, an attorney for the center. “From our perspective, the absolute most important thing is that as soon as (Roos) makes a decision, EGLE starts moving quickly to implement new permits.”
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EGLE also intervened to challenge the administrative law judge’s modified framework. The agency did not respond to requests for comment on its stance.
Garvey said because of the lengthy review, Michigan has been operating under a 2015 rule that allows for too much pollution. The Clean Water Act and state law limits discharge permits to five years, and EGLE’s 2020 order expired in April despite never going into effect.
“The waters are suffering, and there’s far too much evidence of that,” Garvey said.
Factory farms
Michigan has about 270 CAFOs which house hundreds to thousands of cows, chickens and pigs in confined conditions.
Environmentalists have called on tougher provisions on how livestock waste at the sites is handled.
As part of its efforts to make sure manure application does not contaminate nearby surroundings, environmental groups are asking the state to strengthen rules around tile drainage — a system of underground pipes farms use to remove water from fields that flow out into the environment.
“Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for over-application of waste from these livestock operations to make their way into waterways,” said Anne Woiwode, a longtime member of the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter.
The Sierra Club is calling for increased enforcement and transparency related to CAFO waste storage and transfer and banning the winter application of manure on farm land, which can cause excess runoff.
Woiwode said CAFOs are “factory size operations that produce as much waste as small cities” that pose hazards to their surroundings like harmful algal blooms and outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis, a parasitic disease.
Over the course of many years, factory farms were allowed to proliferate without adhering to federal standards because of scant oversight, Woiwode explained, leading to big investments in the CAFO system.
“Because of the lax regulations, we’ve created this real dilemma for the farming community, as well as creating serious health and environmental risks,” Woiwode said.
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