NPPC & Other Stakeholders Work With EPA to Stifle Burdensome Wastewater Decision

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s longstanding Meat and Poultry (MPP) Effluent Guidelines and Standards will stand, as EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that proposed changes to the regulation are unnecessary. In reaching its decision, EPA determined existing federal wastewater regulations under the Clean Water Act are effective and the burdens that proposed changes would inflict on meat and poultry processors are unwarranted.

Duane Stateler, National Pork Producers Council President and pork producer from McComb, Ohio, said “The National Pork Producers Council applauds the Trump administration and EPA Administrator Zeldin for taking a commonsense approach on the Meat & Poultry Processing Rule. As proposed by the previous administration, this rule—which provides no environmental benefits—would have been devastating to small- and medium-sized meat processors across the country and the livestock farmers who rely on them as markets for their animals.

EPA’s action will save not only the nearly 100 local meat processors that EPA itself identified would have to close down but also the thousands of family farmers who rely on them to stay in livestock production, and it will help ensure affordable, nutritious American-grown pork can continue to be served on dinner tables across the country.”