(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Environmental groups say Montana's new 'factory farm' regulations jeopardize clean water – Daily Montanan [1] ['Darrell Ehrlick', 'More From Author', '- December'] Date: 2023-12-21 A lawsuit filed by three different groups says that Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality rewrote rules for large animal operations, often referred to as “factory farms,” to skirt clean water requirements by writing out testing and monitoring standards as well as allowing for some leaking by manure lagoons. The lawsuit, filed Dec.15 in Gallatin County, said the DEQ’s new rules for issuing permits for concentrated animal feeding operations fail to monitor and track pollution, and violate not just state and federal law, but also violate the Montana Constitution’s guarantee of a clean and healthful environment, the same portion of state law that helped a group of youth challenge the state’s response to greenhouse gases in a landmark court ruling this summer, Held vs. State of Montana. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Upper Missouri Waterkeeper, Food and Water Watch and the Center for Food Safety. “DEQ’s failure to include necessary compliance monitoring provisions threatens to seriously degrade water quality throughout the state, undermines the basic framework of the Clean Water Act permit program, precludes the DEQ from protecting Montanans’ inalienable right to a clean and healthful environment, and renders much of the permit unenforceable, creating an absence of adequate remedies,” the lawsuit said. However, a spokesperson for the DEQ pushed back, saying the new rules comply with federal and state law: “The CAFO General Permit (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) was issued in compliance with all state and federal laws, including the imposition of monitoring requirements. The CAFO General Permit contains monitoring, sampling and recordkeeping requirements for the entire CAFO operation including the feeding area, the livestock waste control facilities and the land application area. The permit requires Best Management Practices and a Nutrient Management Plan for regular soil and manure monitoring. If necessary, the CAFO General Permit provides that DEQ may require groundwater monitoring near the facility if any component of the production area constitutes a potential source of pollution to state groundwater.” The groups say that Montana’s new regulations, which were adopted last month, fail provide adequate monitoring, which means that the DEQ may not know when these large-scale farms are in violation of water quality, and residents may not know when groundwater or surface water is being polluted. The lawsuit alleges that it’s not enough to monitor large “factory farms” after they’re operational, the state needs to take more precautions before permitting them. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE “The state must take anticipatory action to protect the ‘environmental life support system from degradation and provide adequate remedies to prevent unreasonable depletion and degradation of natural resources,’” the lawsuit said. The waste from animals usually contains high levels of nitrates and phosphates, which can pollute water and cause human health hazards. The concern is that without adequate testing, phosphorous and nitrate laden waste can mingle with water, and supercharge plant life in rivers and streams. That plant life, often characterized by algae blooms, starves out oxygen, making the waterways uninhabitable for other aquatic life and dangerous for humans. But sometimes those waste products from concentrated animal feeding operations also are used to fertilize crops, but applying too much can cause run-off and pollute water. The lawsuit said that the state has failed to account for those scenarios. “The CAFO permit does not include representative monitoring sufficient to ensure CAFOS comply with the permit’s effluent limitations or to assess whether CAFO discharges cause or contribute to exceedances of water quality standards or degradation of high-quality waters,” the suit said. The suit also says the Montana DEQ allows some leakage from animal waste lagoons to seep, possibly contaminating groundwater. Attorneys for the group point out that the law regarding swine, chicken, turkey and veal “factory farms” requires that no manure, litter or process wastewater production are allowed into waters “whatsoever,” but they point out that the permits allow seepage from waste lagoons at any concentrated animal operation. They say that Montana also doesn’t require any monitoring of those lagoons or run-off, which makes it impossible to tell whether the operations are complying with the law. “Without knowledge of whether permittees are complying with these effluent standards, DEQ has no way of knowing whether enforcement is necessary to safeguard water quality as mandated by the Montana Water Quality Act and the (federal) Clean Water Act,” the lawsuit said. Attorneys for the group point out that other states have dealt with the challenges of concentrated animal feeding operations and the law has been well developed. “Montana’s failure to require pollution monitoring at dirty factory farms amounts to allowing these facilities to operate in a black box. Without proper oversight and enforcement, a permit is little more than a piece of paper,” said Food and Water Watch attorney Dani Replogle. “The courts to address this issue are crystal clear that the Clean Water Act requires CAFO water pollution permits to include critical monitoring provisions; the Department of Environmental Quality’s willful disregard of this fact will not stand in court.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/12/21/environmental-groups-say-montanas-new-factory-farm-regulations-jeopardize-clean-water/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/