tailieunhanh - Animal Waste and Water Quality: EPA Regulation of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)

Similarly, the Susquehanna River Basin Compact established the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, another federal-interstate regulatory collaboration by Congress and the member states. It is parallel in structure and authority to the Delaware River Basin Commission. Any decision of the Commission involves the approval of all of the member parties, which include the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York, as well as the federal government. The Susquehanna River is in the Marcellus shale region so any hydraulic fracturing operation using surface waters will need a permit (see Figure 1). At the 15 March 2012 commission meeting, several natural gas. | Animal Waste and Water Quality EPA Regulation of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations CAFOs Claudia Copeland Specialist in Resources and Environmental Policy February 16 2010 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 RL31851 CRS Report for Congress------------- Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Animal Waste and Water Quality CAFOs Summary According to the Environmental Protection Agency the release of waste from animal feedlots to surface water groundwater soil and air is associated with a range of human health and ecological impacts and contributes to degradation of the nation s surface waters. The most dramatic ecological impacts are massive fish kills. A variety of pollutants in animal waste can affect human health including causing infections of the skin eye ear nose and throat. Contaminants from manure can also affect human health by polluting drinking water sources. Although agricultural activities are generally not subject to requirements of environmental law discharges of waste from large concentrated animal feeding operations CAFOs into the nation s waters are regulated under the Clean Water Act. In the late 1990s the Environmental Protection Agency EPA initiated a review of the Clean Water Act rules that govern these discharges which had not been revised since the 1970s despite structural and technological changes in some components of the animal agriculture industry that have occurred during the last two decades. A proposal to revise the existing rules was released by the Clinton Administration in December 2000. The Bush Administration promulgated final revised regulations in December 2002 the rules took effect in February 2003. The final rules were generally viewed as less stringent than the proposal a fact that strongly influenced how interest groups responded to them. Agriculture groups said that the final rules were workable and they were pleased that some of the proposed requirements were scaled back such as changes that .