|
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
www.cleveland.com
OEPA orders megafarms to get permits for discharge
By
JULIE CARR SMYTH
Tuesday,
October 31, 2000
COLUMBUS
- The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has lowered the boom on a handful of
Ohio's largest factory farms, just days before its authority to regulate them
may be removed by state lawmakers.
In
a letter to environmental and farm interests distributed last week, Director
Christopher Jones announced that EPA would begin requiring federal
pollution-discharge permits of individual Ohio megafarms.
At
least two, including the embattled Buckeye Egg, are likely to get word by mail
this week.
In
an August memo to Gov. Bob Taft's staff, Jones indicated that core federal
funding for Ohio EPA's water program was contingent on making the change, which
he estimated to affect six farms.
But
timing of the switch is complicated by the likely consideration on Nov. 8 of a
bill that would shift regulatory authority over megafarms from EPA to the Ohio
Department of Agriculture. The bill affects those operations with more than
1,000 animal "units," translated to 700 cows or 100,000 chickens, for
example.
Environmentalists
who had been fighting the current regulatory process hailed the move.
"What
they have been getting wasn't a discharge permit, it was a construction permit
with certain specifications for manure and waste handling," said Jeff
Skelding, water policy manager for the Ohio Environmental Council. Current
permits are issued only once, and facilities' discharges are not monitored
regularly for compliance to the federal Clean Water Act, Skelding said.
Environmental
groups have attacked the bill for putting farm regulation into the hands of a
department that is too farm-friendly. They argue that Ohio EPA is best
qualified to monitor, measure and regulate polluters.
Sen.
Larry A. Mumper, the bill's Republican sponsor, said the language in his bill
is broad enough to accommodate the regulatory change. He said its language would
allow the Agriculture Department to adjust policies to comply with U.S. EPA
requirements.
Keith
Stimpert, vice president of government affairs for the Ohio Farm Bureau
Federation, said the farm lobby wouldn't immediately oppose the stepped-up
permit requirements.
©2000 THE PLAIN DEALER. Used with permission.
|
