Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency filed civil enforcement actions against eight beef feedlots in northwest Iowa for violations of the Clean Water Act.
The action, the EPA says, is part of a continuing enforcement emphasis aimed at ending pollutant discharges from concentrated animal feeding operations into the region’s rivers and streams.
“”EPA has two important jobs: enforcing the Clean Water Act and educating about the benefits of cleaner water,” EPA Regional Administrator Karl Brooks said. “Responsible livestock farmers understand and work with the agency to advance both goals."
"Clean Water Act permits, which are a crucial tool to maintain water quality, create legal duties to better protect this nation's waters," Brooks noted. "EPA works with our state partners to promote producers' legal compliance. Enforcing and promoting feedlot permits will produce cleaner waters and likely require fewer enforcement actions in the future."
All eight of the most recent enforcement actions involve administrative compliance orders issued to medium-sized CAFOs, which are feedlots that confine between 300 and 999 cattle and whose discharge is facilitated by a man-made conveyance.
EPA has documented significant water quality problems associated with medium CAFOs and is making compliance at these operations a priority. Runoff from CAFOs may contain such pollutants as pathogens and sediment, as well as nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, all of which can harm aquatic life and impact water quality, the EPA says.
Source: supportiowasfarmers