In June, I wrote about a settlement between EPA and environmental groups that requires EPA to publish guidance on the implementation of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and to propose a rule to collect more information on these operations. In that post, I cited numbers from EPA showing that states in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed had many CAFOs without NPDES permits; for some of the states, not a single CAFO was permitted. Maryland had an estimated 220 CAFOs and only 7 with NPDES CAFO permits.
In response, the Maryland Department of Environment’s Secretary Shari T. Wilson provided an update to the status of the state’s CAFO permitting program, showing nearly twice as many CAFOs and improvements in CAFO permitting statistics. The updated numbers are:
Progress on CAFO Permits (as of June 30, 2010)
|
Notices-of-Intent (NOI) Received |
529 |
|
425 |
|
104 |
|
Compliance Schedules Received for CAFO |
298 |
|
218 |
|
80 |
|
Permits in Public Comment Process |
6 |
|
Permits Completed Public Comment Process |
9 |
|
Registered NOIs |
0 |
|
Farms under 1996 General Discharge Permit for AFO |
7 |
Since MDE’s CAFO permit went into effect, 529 facilities have submitted Notices-of-Intent (NOI), indicating that the facility’s operator believes it is covered by the permit requirements. According to MDE, these facilities generate approximately 85 percent of the poultry waste in Maryland. MDE noted it is “most obviously concerned” about the 127 CAFOs that do not currently have compliance schedules. MDE’s letter also points out that the agency has completed inspections of 52 CAFOs, as of June 30, 2010, exceeding their goal of 50 inspections by July 1, 2010.
I appreciate MDE’s time and willingness to provide updated information. These numbers show that Maryland is doing significantly better than the EPA statistics showed, but that it still has a ways to go. Two major points stand out: First, MDE should make this information available on its website in a format that is accessible and understandable to the public. Transparency has two components, information disclosure and information processing. MDE has taken the first step by establishing a searchable CAFO database, but it would be helpful for the public and public interest organizations for MDE to present the information in an easily understandable format. Second, while Maryland may well be the “first State in EPA Region 3 to have their CAFO Program approved by EPA,” it must continue to demonstrate leadership by attaining an inspection rate of no less than 20 percent of facilities per year, according to guidance set by the EPA. A primary driver for compliance with NPDES permits is consistent inspections and monitoring activities, without which even the strongest permits slide by, disregarded.
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Yee Huang | August 11, 2010
In June, I wrote about a settlement between EPA and environmental groups that requires EPA to publish guidance on the implementation of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and to propose a rule to collect more information on these operations. In that post, I cited numbers from EPA […]
Ben Somberg | August 11, 2010
CPR Member Scholar Rebecca Bratspies was recently on Chicago Public Radio’s Worldview talking about oil spills in the developing world, the power of big companies in small nations, and the broader picture of resource extraction and its effects on people. Said Bratspies: “any oil company that doesn’t cut the same corners that the worst player […]
Yee Huang | August 9, 2010
In the past 15 months, the combination of President Obama’s Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration Executive Order and the EPA’s Bay-wide Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) process has established a framework for ensuring accountability and success in Bay restoration efforts. No aspect of this new framework is more important than the Bay states’ and the […]
Lena Pons | August 6, 2010
The American Chemistry Council (ACC), a trade association that represents chemical industry interests and is heavily connected to the plastics industry, filed a Request for Correction Monday on the EPA's Chemical Action Plan for Bisphenol A (BPA). The request, filed under a provision of the Data Quality Act (also referred to as the Information Quality Act), […]
Amy Sinden | August 5, 2010
It turns out there’s more than one way an offshore oil rig can kill a fish. Even when they’re not spewing oil into the ocean, oil rigs kill vast numbers of fish and other aquatic organisms in their daily operations by sucking them up into their cooling water intake systems, where they get squashed against screens […]
Victor Flatt | August 4, 2010
Cross-posted from Flatt Out Environmental. As expected, the EPA’s “tailoring rule,” under which it proposes to regulate stationary sources of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act (CAA) only if they produce over 75,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent forcing per year, has been challenged in court by numerous organizations. These include industry, several states […]
Ben Somberg | August 3, 2010
The Minerals Managements Service’s coziness with an industry it was supposed to be monitoring has brought attention back to an all-too-pervasive problem: regulatory agencies becoming “captured” by the regulated industries. This morning the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts is holding a hearing on “Protecting the Public Interest: Understanding the Threat […]
Ben Somberg | July 29, 2010
You may have read of a letter sent by 31 Representatives to the EPA today to complain about coal ash regulation. I wasn’t planning on dignifying it with a response, but sometimes something just calls out for a little highlighting. Like when the members write: “States have been effectively regulating CCRs” That’s actually a case […]
Thomas McGarity | July 28, 2010
Now that Congress has passed legislation creating a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the Treasury Department, attention has shifted to how the Obama Administration will implement the new law. The issue of who President Obama should appoint to head the new agency is now front and center. Consumer groups and many members of Congress […]