Important Documents

• STAPPA/ALAPCO Comments on AFO Safe Harbor Agreement Lagoon Monitoring Protocol (November 22, 2005)
   
• AFO Safe Harbor Agreement Lagoon Monitoring Protocol � Comments from Michelle Bohn, Nebraska (November 22, 2005)
   
• AFO Safe Harbor Agreement Lagoon Monitoring Protocol � Comments from Norm Covell, Sacramento, California (November 22, 2005)
   
• AFO Safe Harbor Agreement Lagoon Monitoring Protocol � Comments from Betsy Frey, Delaware (November 22, 2005)
   
• AFO Safe Harbor Agreement Lagoon Monitoring Protocol � Comments from David Grande, Wisconsin (November 22, 2005)
   
• AFO Safe Harbor Agreement Lagoon Monitoring Protocol � Comments from Iowa (November 22, 2005)
   
• AFO Safe Harbor Agreement Lagoon Monitoring Protocol � Comments from Amy Royden-Bloom, STAPPA/ALAPCO (November 22, 2005)
   
• AFO Safe Harbor Agreement Lagoon Monitoring Protocol � Comments from San Joaquin Valley, California (November 22, 2005)
   
• AFO Safe Harbor Agreement Lagoon Monitoring Protocol � Comments from Dave Warner, SJV, CA (November 22, 2005)
   
• AFO Safe Harbor Agreement Lagoon Monitoring Protocol � Comments from Annette Sharp, CenSARA (November 22, 2005)

   

• AFO Safe Harbor Agreement Lagoon Monitoring Protocol (November 22, 2005)

   

• AFO Safe Harbor Agreement Lagoon Monitoring Protocol � Required NAEMS Checksheet (November 22, 2005)

   

• AFO Safe Harbor Agreement Lagoon Monitoring Protocol � OAQPS Comments (November 22, 2005)

   
• CAFO Safe Harbor Agreement -- Tabulation of Signups by State (November 16, 2005) -- This chart lists the types of farms and numbers that have signed up by state.
   

• Utah AFO Air Quality Strategy: MOU Between Utah Department of Environmental Quality and US EPA (October 14, 2005) � This MOU sets up an air emission monitoring program for AFOs located in Utah and includes identification of BMPs.
   

• San Joaquin Valley�s Determination of VOC Emission Factors for Dairies (August 3, 2005) � Based on analysis of the work of the Dairy Permitting Advisory Group, San Joaquin Valley has calculated an emission factor of 19.3 pounds of VOCs per head per year for dairies.  Click here for a list of appendices.  Click here for comments and responses.  Click here for a news release.
   

• Development of Environmentally Superior Technologies: Phase 2 Technology Determinations (August 2, 2005) -- This report comprises the second in a series of technology determinations for candidate Environmentally Superior Technologies (EST) as described and mandated by agreements between the Attorney General of North Carolina, Smithfield Foods, Premium Standard Farms, and Frontline Farmers.  The EST are supposed to address the discharge of animal waste to surface waters and groundwater; emission of ammonia; emission of odor; release of disease-transmitting vectors and airborne pathogens; and nutrient and heavy metal contamination of soil and groundwater.  They must also be operationally and economically feasible.
   

• Third Extension of Sign-up Period for CAFO Safe Harbor Agreement (August 1, 2005) -- EPA has extended the deadline for farms to sign up to its safe harbor agreement to August 12, 2005.  Click here for the August 3, 2005 Federal Register notice.
   

• Notice Extending Signup Period for AFO Safe Harbor Agreement (July 12, 2005) � The signup period is extended to July 29, 2005.  This page of the Federal Register also contains a notice that EPA has posted its response to comments on the EPA docket web site.
   

• San Joaquin Valley Proposal for VOC Emission Factor for Dairies (June 28, 2005) -- The proposed factor is 20.6 pounds of VOCs per head, per year.
   

• EPA�s Response to Comments on AFO Safe Harbor Agreement (June 23, 2005)
   

• EPA Web Site on AFO Safe Harbor Agreement (June 23, 2005)
   

• Lawsuit on EPA AFO Safe Harbor Agreement (June 2, 2005) � This petition to review was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by the Environmental Integrity Project, the Sierra Club, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and the Association of Irritated Residents challenging EPA�s proposed Air Quality Compliance Agreement for Animal Feeding Operations.  Click here for a press release.
   

• STAPPA/ALAPCO Spring Membership Meeting Presentations (June 1, 2005)
   

• Petition Challenging Funding Mechanism for Safe Harbor Agreement (May 19, 2005) � The Campaign for Family Farms filed this amended petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) urging that the USDA immediately halt the use of mandatory pork checkoff funds to pay for EPA�s Safe Harbor Agreement with AFOs  Click here for a press release.
   

• CARB Draft Staff Report on Definition of Large CAFO (May 17, 2005) � CARB approved the rule in this report at its meeting on June 23, 2005.  Click here for the press release.
   

• Dairy Emission Factors for VOCs (May 9, 2005) � This report contains recommendations for VOC emission factors for dairies; it was compiled by San Joaquin Valley�s Dairy Permitting Advisory Committee.
   

• Linn County, MO health ordinance on CAFOs (April 27, 2005) � This regulation establishes health regulations for CAFOs, including a requirement to obtain a county health permit. It was challenged in court, but upheld.  The Missouri legislature is considering legislation that would prohibit counties from adopting any regulations that differ from state law, which would include ordinances like this one.
   
• Idaho Dairy Ammonia Emissions Factors Agreement (March 24, 2005) -- Idaho Conservation League and Independent Dairy Environmental Action League negotiated air quality emission factors for three different dairy management systems predominant in the Idaho dairy industry: open lot, free stall scrape and free stall flush. Ammonia emissions were the focus of the discussion and analysis and the only air pollutant for which threshold herd sizes were defined.
   
• Presentations from CARB's Livestock Emissions Research Symposium (March 15, 2005) -- This symposium was held January 26, 2005 to review the latest research on livestock emissions, focusing on emissions from dairy cattle, beef cattle and poultry.
   
• Iowa DNR Comments on EPA Air Quality Compliance Agreement for AFOs (March 4, 2005)
   
• STAPPA/ALAPCO Comments on EPA Air Quality Compliance Agreement for AFOs (March 3, 2005)
   
• EPA Air Quality Compliance Agreement for AFOs (January 21, 2005) -- This agreement provides a safe harbor from enforcement by EPA of certain Clean Air Act, CERCLA and EPCRA provisions for participating AFOs in exchange for the AFOs paying a small penalty and contributing funding for a monitoring program. Comments are due by March 2, 2005. Click here for the monitoring protocol. Click here for the January 31st Federal Register notice. Click here for a fact sheet. Click here for a link to a Q&A prepared by the National Pork Producers Council on the agreement. EPA has extended the comment period to May 2, 2005 and the sign-up period to July 1, 2005; click here for this notice. Click here for an EPA presentation on the agreement.
   
• Carcass Disposal: A Comprehensive Review (December 7, 2004) -- This report provides a comprehensive summary of the scientific, technical, and social aspects of various carcass disposal technologies. It covers disposal technologies such as burial, incineration, composting, rendering, lactic acid fermentation, alkaline hydrolysis, anaerobic digestion, as well as novel and non-traditional disposal technologies. Also addressed are issues such as economic and cost considerations, environmental impacts, and decontamination strategies, among others. It was compiled by the Kansas State University National Agricultural Biosecurity Center, along with collaborators at Purdue University and Texas A&M University.
   
• Tenth Circuit Decision on Superfund Reporting Applicability to Farms (November 5, 2004) -- The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled that, for purposes of determining whether CERCLA's reporting requirements (section 103(a)) apply, the term "facility" should be construed broadly to encompass two contiguous farms operated by the same company, Seaboard. CERCLA�s Section 103(a) sets out various reporting requirements for the release of hazardous substances from a facility. Sierra Club sued Seaboard arguing that it was required to report ammonia emissions from the Dorman Farm.
   
• STAPPA/ALAPCO Fall 2004 Membership Meeting Presentations (October 29, 2004)
   
• USDA CSREES Agricultural Air Quality Research Projects (October 19, 2004)
   
• South Coast AQMD's Dairy Manure Regulation (August 16, 2004) -- South Coast AQMD adopted the nation�s first regulation to reduce smog- and particulate-forming emissions from waste generated by dairy cows.  Click here for a press release.  Click here for a letter to the South Coast AQMD's Board about the regulation.
    
• Development of Environmentally Superior Technologies Report (August 5, 2004) -- This is the phase I report for technology determinations as called for in an agreement between the North Carolina Attorney General and Smithfield Foods, Premium Standard Farms, and Frontline Farmers. Under this agreement, North Carolina State University was required to list technologies or combinations of technologies that would qualify as "Environmentally Superior Technology or Technologies." These technologies are supposed to address environmental variables including the discharge of animal waste to surface waters and groundwater; emission of ammonia; emission of odor; release of disease transmitting vectors and airborne pathogens; and nutrient and heavy metal contamination of soil and groundwater.
   
• CAPCOA's White Paper on AFOs and CAFOs (July 12, 2004) -- For those of you considering adopting regulatory programs that would require emissions from AFOs and CAFOs to be permitted under Title V and NSR, Doug Quetin, Co-Chair of the STAPPA/ALAPCO Agriculture Committee, notes that a White Paper developed by California may be helpful. The legislation enacted last summer by California that requires T V and NSR permitting for AFOs and CAFOs can also be found on the page. 
   
• South Coast AQMD's Proposed Rule Limiting Emissions from Dairy Manure (June 18, 2004) -- South Coast's Proposed Rule 1127 � Emission Reductions from Livestock Waste, would require dairies to clear manure from corrals more frequently and send the manure to an emissions-controlled compost facility, an anaerobic digester or to agricultural land where manure is approved for spreading as fertilizer. Click here for a press release.
   
• Vigil v. EPA (Decision on Agriculture BMPs for Arizona's PM-10 SIP) (May 25, 2004) -- In this decision filed May 10, 2004, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld EPA's approval of Arizona's general permit rule for agricultural sources as BACM for PM-10. Arizona's rule establishes three categories of farm activities, sets out 34 BMPs (dividing them among the 3 categories), and requires commercial farmers to implement at least one BMP per category. The Court said that EPA's approval of this requirement as BACM for PM-10 was not arbitrary and capricious and thus upheld it. Click here for a link to Arizona's BMP program.
   
• USDA-funded Air Quality Research Projects (April 8, 2004) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded a total of $5.1 million to eleven institutions to perform air quality research.
   
• Buckeye Egg -- Proposed Consent Decree (February 24, 2004) -- Under a settlement reached with EPA, Buckeye Egg Farm in Ohio will spend more than $1.4 million to install and test innovative pollution controls to cut emissions of PM and ammonia from its three giant egg-laying facilities and pay an $880,598 civil penalty. Click here for Attachment A regarding emission controls. Click here for a DOJ press release.
   
• STAPPA/ALAPCO Letter to EPA on Revised Safe Harbor Agreement (February 18, 2004) -- This letter from the chairs of the Agriculture Committee expresses concerns with EPA's revised draft of the safe harbor agreement (also known as the animal feeding operations consent agreement and final order, or AFO CA/FO.)