TUCKER, Ga. — There’s an previous saying, “A foul penny at all times turns up.” Apparently, the phrase dates way back to the 1300s and comes from the incidence of counterfeit pennies in circulation. Now the phrase is commonly used to explain one thing that’s unwelcome or somebody or one thing that unwantedly re-occurs. This phrase is definitely becoming for the topic of reporting the emission of ammonia from poultry homes.
On Feb. 15, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Safety Company (EPA) closed the docket on accepting feedback after issuing an Superior Discover of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) that requested info that may help the Company “within the potential improvement of laws to reinstate the reporting of animal waste air emissions at farms below the Emergency Planning and Neighborhood Proper-to-Know Act (EPCRA).”
EPCRA resulted from Congress’s passing of a federal statute that was launched after a launch of a pesticide in 1984 from an industrial plant in Bhopal, India. One key provision of EPCRA is a requirement to right away report an unintentional launch of “Extraordinarily Hazardous Substances (EHSs) and CERCLA hazardous substances. Following the preliminary notification of an unintentional launch, the ability should additionally present a follow-up written report on the incident. State Emergency Planning Commissions (SERC) and Native Emergency Planning Committees (LEPC) are required to make these reviews out there to the general public.
The historical past of this situation spans nearly twenty years beginning with the poultry business’s 2005 petition to the EPA to offer a CERCLA and EPCRA reporting exemption to poultry operations for the emission of ammonia generated from the pure decomposition of manure.
The petition identified that the ammonia emitted from poultry farms posed no well being threat to the general public due to the comparatively fast pure dispersion of ammonia, and mixed with the air flow practices of poultry growers, ammonia ranges outdoors of the farm web site are low sufficient to forestall off-site public well being impacts. The EPA’s personal SCREEN3 dispersion mannequin supported the EPA’s conclusion that the general public shouldn’t be uncovered to unhealthy ranges of ammonia emissions from poultry operations.
The EPA’s evaluate of that petition led the Company in 2008 to offer a slender exemption for CERCLA reporting necessities and a partial reporting exemption below the EPCRA statute. The 2008 reporting exemptions solely pertained to emissions launched to the air that got here from animal manure. Moreover, the EPCRA reporting exemption was additional restricted to “small” farms that had been outlined as farms that housed animals in numbers beneath the brink limits outlined within the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) Rule.
Whereas the requirement to right away report the discharge of an EHS above a reporting threshold is becoming for substances like pesticides to help in emergency response actions, emergency response notification of low concentrations of ammonia coming from a poultry home, just because it could exceed the 100 pound per day reporting threshold, is unwarranted. This was substantiated in 2009 when farms started to report below the rules of the partial EPCRA reporting exemption issued in 2008.
The quick end result of the reporting occasion was nothing lower than chaotic. Upon receiving the reviews on the morning of Jan. 20, 2009, the SERC for the State of Maryland known as a consultant of U. S. Poultry & Egg Affiliation (USPOULTRY) asking what the reviews had been for, why had been they receiving them and requested USPOULTRY to assist unfold the phrase the reviews weren’t wished. Related conditions had been occurring in different state SERC places of work across the nation.
Additional proof that EPCRA notifications are pointless is a June 2017 letter from the president of the Nationwide Affiliation of SARA Title III Program Officers (NASTTPO). NASTTPO is made up of members and workers of State Emergency Response Commissions (SERCs), Tribal Emergency Response Commissions (TERCS), Native Emergency Planning Committees (LEPCs), varied federal, state and native companies, personal business and the huge variety of volunteers that carry out emergency planning and emergency response actions for his or her communities.
The letter despatched by the president of NASTTPO to the EPA administrator indicated, “These reviews are of no specific worth to LEPCs and first responders, and they’re usually ignored as a result of they don’t relate to any specific occasion.” He went on to clarify, “LEPCs and first responders don’t want extra generic information. They want info that’s regionally related and upon which they’ll act. This purpose is finest obtained by a program that promotes coordination between the regulated services and these native teams.”
Sadly, the partial exemption offered by the EPA in 2008 was quick lived, when a lawsuit filed in 2017 led the D.C. Circuit Court docket to vacate the ultimate rule eliminating the CERCLA and partial EPCRA reporting exemptions.
In 2018, Congress lastly weighed in on the necessity to report these emissions when it handed the “Honest Agricultural Reporting Methodology Act” or “FARM Act,” into legislation that exempted farms from CERCLA reporting necessities for emissions from animal waste. In query once more was the necessity for EPCRA reviews.
There is no such thing as a argument from the EPA that the CERCLA and the EPCRA reporting necessities are carefully inter-related. The EPA has acknowledged the “EPCRA part 304 reporting relies upon, partly, on whether or not reporting is required below CERCLA part 103. EPCRA’s legislative historical past additional signifies that EPCRA part 304 reporting necessities are designed to be per the reporting necessities of CERCLA part 103.” This reality led the EPA to offer an EPCRA reporting exemption in 2019 after Congress handed the “FARM Act.”
The current ANPRM attests to the tie between CERCLA and EPCRA reporting necessities by stating, “The solicitation of touch upon these issues shouldn’t be learn because the EPA suggesting authorized ambiguity within the related laws or recognizing a specific interpretation by the EPA of both EPCRA, the Complete Environmental Response, Compensation, and Legal responsibility Act of 1980 (CERCLA), or their implementing laws.”
Regardless of this clear and authorized pathway to offer an EPCRA reporting exemption, the current ANPRM indicators the EPA’s intention to re-instate a reporting requirement that can serve no objective. In doing so, the company is making an attempt to disregard the practicality, and extra so, the legality of offering a slender reporting exemption through the use of an over-reaching Govt Order that elevates ambiguous ideas like “environmental and social justice” over concise authorized statues which have been scrutinized by means of the three branches of the federal government.
Keep tuned, we are going to quickly see if the “unhealthy penny” returns.
Paul Bredwell is govt vp of regulatory applications with the U.S. Poultry & Egg Affiliation primarily based in Tucker, Ga. He will be reached by e-mail at pbredwell@uspoultry.org.
