An Environmental Protection Agency proposal to expand the amount of data collected at large animal farms not only exceeds the agency’s authority under the Clean Water Act, it creates “intense security, safety and privacy concerns” for farmers and ranchers, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
According to the terms of a settlement agreement with environmentalists, EPA is proposing gathering detailed data from animal operations, including locations, the number and types of animals, contact information, the number of acres where manure could be applied and whether the operation has a Clean Water Act permit.
EPA’s proposal offers two options: collect information from all animal operations or limit the reporting requirements to certain watersheds. In comments submitted recently to EPA, Farm Bureau and dozens of other agriculture organizations laid out four reasons they oppose the agency’s plan.
First, many livestock and poultry farms do not discharge and therefore should not be required to report.
Second, both options would make too much information about farmers’ and ranchers’ operations available to the public. “This greatly raises the risk that these farm and ranch families will experience malicious acts of violence and intimidation by activists,” the groups said in their comments.
Third, the national registry the proposal would establish creates unacceptable biosecurity risks that are inconsistent with federal policy to protect the nation’s food supply from such threats.
Fourth, the reporting requirements would put the animals’ health in danger. When people go onto farms unauthorized, even without malicious intent, “and fail to follow their animal health protocols, the risk of disease and death for their animals increases exponentially,” Farm Bureau and the other organizations explained.
The groups said a third approach considered by EPA—to use information already available—would be acceptable, as long as the agency did not compile the data into a central registry.
