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Animal Factory Pollution
This typical Michigan animal factory has several huge
barns that house hundreds or thousands of animals each, and several
open raw sewage storage pits. Photo by Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan. Airplane provided by Lighthawk.
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Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs): what are they?
CAFOs are massive animal factories that house thousands of livestock in close quarters, producing as much untreated animal sewage as cities. Animal factories are growing in number throughout Michigan's countryside, they're often inappropriately placed, and often designed to pollute. Sierra Club has led the fight to protect the health and economic well-being of Michigan's rural communities by working for more stringent regulation, to bring these operations under the same kinds of environmental and health regulations as all other industries.
The past few months have seen some progess, and interest from Congress. CAFOs were recently on the public hearing agenda at the May 12, 2008 Congressional Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held by Congresswoman Candice Miller and Committee Chair James Oberstar. Our CAFO Water Sentinel Lynn Henning was there to explain CAFOs' impacts on water. You can download her testimony here.
Scientific Review and Studies of CAFOs and Impacts
The journal Environmental Health Perspectives presented a series of articles about concentrated animal feeding operations and their impacts over several months in 2006 and 2007. You can read the articles free online.
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Animal waste harms water
Michigan law treats animal factories as if they are farms, but they have little in common with traditional agriculture. (See Anatomy of an Animal Factory.) CAFOs concentrate thousands of dairy cows, beef cattle, hogs, or lambs, or even hundreds of thousands of chickens, turkeys, or other livestock into massive buildings year round. The animals' raw liquified manure, plus milk house waste, blood, dead animals, sanitizing and other chemicals, is stored in an open pit that holds millions of gallons. The untreated animal sewage is 25 to 100 times stronger than human sewage, with harmful bacteria and pathogens, plus nutrients and other contaminants. The wastes ferment in the waste pits for six months or more, and then are spread on farm fields for disposal as crop fertilizer. Far too often, though, it washes off the fields, or right through the soil into field tiles that drain into streams and rivers, contaminating drinking water intakes, threatening recreational users and harming fish and other wildlife. Groundwater contamination is also a risk, from nitrates or pathogens like E. coli that move downward into aquifers with the filthy water.
Air pollution harms people
Air pollution from the animal factories comes from the barns, the lagoons and from spreading wastes on fields. Irrigators spray untreated wastes through overhead pipes, aerosolizing the liquid and bacteria. Children and the elderly in particular suffer from exposure to hydrogen sulfide gas, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter that can carry bacteria or other pathogens right into the lungs of neighbors. See this study by Iowa State University and the University of Iowa "Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation Air Quality Study". Yet Michigan law ignores these threats, and treats animal factories as if they were farms when it comes to air pollution, despite extensive scientific documentation that these operations can cause severe health problems.
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CAFOs harm farmers and rural community, and rural economy
Animal factories hurt farmers who can't compete with the huge corporate-owned operations, partly because the huge operations get the lion's share of tax supported federal agriculture subsidies. Mega-dairies often earn a premium on their milk because a milk-hauler needs to make fewer stops to fill their tanks, leaving smaller producers out in the cold. Add to this that animal factories often surround smaller farms, so the smaller farms are harmed by the same water, air, and land pollution as non-farming residents. There's no escape. No one wants to buy a home near an animal factory, so CAFO-neighbors find themselves unable to sell, with property values dropping as much as 70% after animal factories move in. In "Community Health and Socioeconomic Issues Surrounding Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations", the "workgroup evaluated impacts of the proliferation of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) on sustaining the health of rural communities. Recommended policy changes include a more stringent process for issuing permits for CAFOs, considering bonding for manure storage basins, limiting animal density per watershed, enhancing local control, and mandating environmental impact statements." (Environ Health Perspect. 2007 February; 115(2): 317–320., Published online 2006 November 14. doi: 10.1289/ehp.8836. PMCID: PMC1817697)
Learn more, additional resources
Watch the Sierra Club's acclaimed 24 minute documentary, Living a Nightmare: Animal Factories in Michigan, produced by Future Media Corporation of Okemos, Michigan.
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Reason for hope: Water discharge permits now required
Recently, in part because of on-going work of Sierra Club, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality began to regulate Animal Factories by requiring water discharge permits. A February 2004 directive requires new or expanding large Animal Factories to apply for clean water discharge permit coverage and to comply with water quality standards. The largest new Animal Factories are required to obtain individual permits before operation can begin. But no air quality regulations for Animal Factories have yet been created or enforced, and existing requirements for groundwater discharge permits are not being enforced.
Sierra Club position: state laws, permits, local government control
Michigan needs strong pollution prevention laws that specifically pertain to CAFOs. Until such laws are passed, Michigan should not encourage or allow the establishment of new Animal Factories.
Permits must spell out operating standards and include a comprehensive waste handling plan for each facility. Air and water quality monitoring should be conducted, as well as regular inspections, to ensure permit requirements are met. State and local governments must be able to establish more comprehensive guidelines for Animal Factory waste disposal to meet the needs of unique landscape, rainfall, climate and population factors specific to their communities.
Local governments should have the right to make land use decisions regarding siting of large scale livestock operations, particularly near water supplies, schools, homes or other areas where high potential for human health impacts exists. Animal Factory operators should be trained in proper livestock and waste management.
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What You Can Do Now
You can contact your Legislator to ensure he/she is aware of the issue and the potential damage CAFO operations can do to the state's air and water quality. Become a Sierra Club Legislative Watchdog or contact Gayle Miller, Legislative Director, for current information on the legislative issues.
Is an Animal Factory planned for your community?
Information about pending CAFO water discharge permits can be found on the MDEQ website. You can help work to monitor Animal Factories and comment on proposed permits for new or existing Animal Factories. Contact Lynn Henning, Sierra Club's Michigan CAFO Water Sentinel, to learn more about this work. Lynn and her husband Dean are family farmers working land that has been in the Henning family for four generations. Eight years ago, when the first of the 12 concentrated animal feeding operations in the Hudson area of Michigan set up next door to her family’s farm, Lynn joined with other residents to form Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan to do water monitoring and fight to protect their homes, their health, and their way of life. Lynn became part of the Sierra Club Water Sentinels team as a volunteer, and in January 2005 came on staff as the Michigan Chapter’s CAFO Water Sentinel.
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Additional Information and Resources
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