A Bad Day for Factory Farms?

Damn, Jill! (4.00 / 2)

Amazing catch. I didn't know that. Is the Chesapeake Bay not protected by the Clean Water Act? Is the Ohio River not protected by the Clean Water Act? Are not factory farms in the Midwest underlain by tile drainage systems specifically built to drain into waters protected by the Clean Water Act?

Well, maybe all these sources have permits and are regulated? I doubt it.

How many decades will be required to undo damage caused by the Bush administration?

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by: count @ Mon Jun 07, 2010 at 17:05:39 PM UTC

easy to make a good catch (4.00 / 2)

when nice, smart people send them to your email for you.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Mon Jun 07, 2010 at 17:13:05 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

How many decades... (4.00 / 2)

How many decades will be required to undo damage caused by the Bush administration?

Well, first we'd need "leaders" actually interested in fixing the damage, rather than adding more shit to the already steaming pile themselves...

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Mon Jun 07, 2010 at 18:39:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

EPA... (4.00 / 1)

This one's a bit more recent -

WASHINGTON-The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called a press conference Monday to publicly denounce the environment for blatantly refusing to pull its weight in mankind's ongoing efforts at ecological conservation.

"For 40 years, we have worked tirelessly to ensure the health and safety of our natural environment," a visibly angered EPA administrator Lisa Jackson told reporters. "But this can only work when it's a give-and-take. If the environment won't even meet us halfway by regenerating a rain forest or two, or pumping out some clean air and water every once in a while, then what's the point of us trying?"

Added Jackson, "I'm as committed to saving the earth as anyone, but for crying out loud, when is the earth going to hold up its end of the bargain?"

According to an EPA report, most of the environment's day-to-day processes can be categorized as rude and inconsiderate, in particular its selfish overreliance on "absolutely, perfectly clean soil" for sustainable growth, and its continual inability to act in good faith and adapt to rising carbon dioxide levels.

Heh...

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Mon Jun 07, 2010 at 18:44:57 PM UTC

Get ready to rulemake! (4.00 / 2)

The settlement doesn't seem to require much immediate action (according to coverage I've seen, I haven't read the actual settlement), but gets the EPA moving on fact finding and rulemaking.  The rulemaking will go through the normal chain of proposal, public comment, etc. and therefore will take a few years.

A piece at Grist about the EPA rule that caused the lawsuit had this disturbing bit:

Between 1997 and 2004, the U.S. Department of Justice waged a grand total of eight lawsuits against CAFOs for violating water-pollution standards under the Clean Water Act.

"Without permits, government officials don't even know you're out there in many cases," says Merkel. Take the example of Illinois, she says, a major farm state where nearly 85 percent of the total public lake acreage is contaminated. "There are at least 500 large CAFOs in the state; only about 40 have permits, and only about a fifth of them have even been inspected," says Merkel. The state EPA has an inventory of only 30 percent of the CAFOs now operating in Illinois. "They don't even know where the vast majority are," says Merkel.

Ideally, the new rules will require all CAFOs to be known to regulators.

For tons of details about the history of EPA's CAFO rules, visit the EPA CAFO page.

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by: mental_masala @ Tue Jun 08, 2010 at 04:38:47 AM UTC