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| Illinois EPA seeks to hold control over state CAFOs |
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By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent PEORIA, Ill. — A newly formed Illinois citizens’ group has filed a formal, legal petition urging the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to strip Illinois EPA (IEPA) of control of pollution permits and confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) oversight and enforcement.
The Illinois Citizens for Clean Air and Water (ICCAW) and the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Integrity Project filed the petition asking the EPA to initiate a public hearing on IEPA’s capability to properly administer CAFO regulations, according to a May 14 news release issued by the groups. Wresting control of Clean Water Act enforcement from the IEPA is the goal of the groups.
ICCAW organizer Kendall Thu said though IEPA has had the authority to administer the Clean Water Act permitting program for CAFOs since 1977, it has failed to meaningfully enforce it.
“This flagrant regulatory neglect costs our communities dearly in terms of water pollution,” Thu stated.
IEPA spokesperson Maggie Carson said the petition is without merit and a direct attack on the IEPA. She refuted Thu’s assertion that enforcement of the Clean Water Act regarding CAFOs by the IEPA is “nonexistent,” as the group claims.
“That’s just absolutely incorrect,” said Carson, pointing to a case currently in the Illinois court system against a Bureau County farmer accused of an egregious violation of the act due to an illegal discharge of wastewater. “The case was referred by the IEPA to the attorney general and a lawsuit is in progress.”
Carson said once the federal government announces new regulations and enforcement procedures, the IEPA could take a larger role in enforcing violations.
“We can’t set up a program independent of what the federal government is doing,” she said. “We’re awaiting new rule-making before we can confidently move forward with the appropriate processes.”
The petition argues that the IEPA’s authority to issue National Pollutant Discharge (NPDES) permits should be revoked by the EPA due to the state’s failure to enforce the Clean Water Act.
The groups are asking the EPA to initiate a public hearing on the issue and to begin formal proceedings to revoke the IEPA’s oversight regarding “factory farms.”
ICCAW members said the IEPA has failed to issue a single valid CAFO NPDES permit.
“The 750,000-gallon spill of untreated swine manure (in Bureau County) may have been prevented, had the Illinois EPA been doing its job,” said Danielle Diamond, counsel for ICCAW.
Matthew Alschuler, a farmer who resides in the vicinity of a proposed “mega-dairy” in Jo Daviess County in northwestern Illinois, was quoted in the groups’ news release as being in favor of relinquishing the IEPA of its ability to issue NPDES permits.
“We feel that there is an urgent need to petition the EPA at this time because livestock production in Illinois is increasingly an industrial process, dominated by large facilities that confine thousands of poultry, swine and dairy and beef cattle in CAFOs,” Alschuler said.
“The proposed mega-dairy will be the largest of its kind in Illinois, yet no NPDES permit has been issued by the IEPA. Our feeling is that Illinois is woefully behind the curve compared to other states like Minnesota and Wisconsin, which regularly issue permits and monitor activities so they comply with the Clean Water Act.”
Carson said the facility’s location in Jo Daviess County is currently under review by the Illinois Department of Agriculture, which will monitor its construction. Concerns about issuing an NPDES permit for the facility are unfounded, she said, because wastewater would be discharged into a lagoon system rather than public waterways.
“With no discharge into the waters of the state, there is no reason to issue a water discharge permit,” she said.
According to the ICCAW, despite “repeated attempts” by Illinois family farmers and citizens’ groups to spur the IEPA to action, the state has resisted bringing factory farms into compliance.
“Illinois’ operation of the permitting program fails to comply with the federal Clean Water Act,” said Environmental Integrity Project Director Eric Schaeffer. “Because Illinois is failing to carry out its responsibilities ... we have more than reasonable grounds to make this petition.”
This farm news was published in the May 21, 2008 issue of the Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
| 5/21/2008 |
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