By STEPHEN POWER
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration exempted certain large factory farms from a requirement to report emissions of noxious gases caused by animal waste, angering environmentalists and delivering another policy victory to business interests before President-elect Barack Obama and his environmental team take office.
Under a rule change announced Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency will allow so-called concentrated animal feeding operations — large scale factory farms — not to disclose to authorities when air emissions of hazardous substances like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide exceed certain levels when the source of those emissions is manure.
The agency’s move, in the works for a year, has stirred opposition from environmental groups and some members of Congress who worry that the EPA lacks information and a clear strategy for regulating mega-farms that have stirred controversy in some communities because of concerns about foul odors and water pollution.
In a statement Friday, the EPA said the rule change would “enable authorities to better focus their attention on hazardous substance releases that require a response, while reducing reporting burdens on America’s farms.”
The agency has said existing reporting requirements have created an unnecessary burden for many farms and that the emission release reports usually weren’t acted upon. The agency added in its Friday statement that farms would still have to notify authorities when hazardous substances are released to the air from sources other than animal waste — for example, from ammonia tanks — and when hazardous substances are released to soil and water.
The change drew an indignant response from the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. John Dingell (D., Mich.), who noted that a report earlier this year by the Government Accountability Office said the EPA “does not have the information it needs to effectively regulate” emissions from factory farms.
“Today’s action by the Bush EPA is nothing more than a giveaway to Big Agribusiness at the expense of the public health and of local communities located near large factory farms,” Mr. Dingell said in a written statement. He added that he intended to investigate “what remedies are available to block or reverse this regulatory change” when Congress reconvenes next year.
According to the GAO, the number of concentrated animal-feeding operations more than tripled between 1982 and 2002. The GAO study said such farms can generate as much as 1.6 million tons of manure annually — more than one and a half times the waste produced each year by the city of Philadelphia.
Persuading the EPA to ease reporting requirements of their emissions levels has been a major goal of some agriculture lobbying groups. In 2005, the National Chicken Council, the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association and the National Turkey Federation petitioned the agency to exempt poultry growers from reporting requirements for ammonia emissions, saying the application of such requirements “does not improve environmental or public-health outcomes in any way” and creates overly severe burdens for tens of thousands of family-run businesses that operate poultry farms.
The rule change marks the latest in a growing number of policy changes adopted by Bush administration in its final weeks over the objection of environmental groups. Earlier Friday, the Interior Department finalized rules making it easier for companies that mine for coal buried under mountaintops to dump waste near rivers and streams.
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