WASHINGTON, 30 July — Every year factory farms dump 220 billion gallons of animal waste onto farmland and into America’s waterways, posing a major threat to public health, according to a report released by NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) and the Clean Water Network.
The report, cited as the most comprehensive to date on waste lagoons, calls on the Bush administration to phase out waste lagoons at large-scale hog, dairy and egg farms, and to ban the construction of new ones.
Referring to scientific studies, pollution records and anecdotal reports from victims of factory farm pollution, the report, “Cesspools of Shame,” documents the dangers posed by factory farm lagoons, which store massive quantities of animal waste in open-air pits, and the common practice of over-applying waste on “sprayfields.”
Lagoon and sprayfield wastewater contains viruses, bacteria, antibiotics, metals, oxygen-depleting substances and other toxins that run off the land, contaminate the groundwater, and pollute the atmosphere.
The report also summarizes the wide range of alternatives to the lagoon and sprayfield system, including wastewater treatment technology and sustainable agricultural practices that prevent pollution.
“This witches’ brew of toxins from lagoons and sprayfields is polluting our air, lakes, rivers, streams, estuaries and drinking water,” said Robbin Marks, a factory farm expert who authored the report.
“It threatens the health of farm workers, neighbors and even communities located far away from factory farms, as well as fish, wildlife, and aquatic ecosystems.”
Despite the devastating impact of this outdated approach to manure storage and disposal, the Environmental Protection Agency has been unwilling to consider banning lagoon and sprayfield systems at large-scale animal feedlots. Under its proposed technology regulations, the agency would continue to allow thousands of hog, dairy, and egg factory farms to store liquid manure in lagoons the size of several football fields. The agency’s proposal also would allow new operations to use lagoon and sprayfield systems.
Lagoons are on large industrial farms owned by multimillion-dollar corporation, and have broken, failed or overflowed at operations that are owned or controlled by many of these companies, which has lead to significant fish kills and contaminated drinking water supplies.
“We don’t see how EPA can ignore the overwhelming evidence of the environmental destruction caused by lagoons and spray fields at large-scale animal factories,” said a lawyer for NRDC.
“By authorizing the continued use of these systems, the agency is sending a message that it is not concerned about protecting our environment or the health of Americans.”
Factory farms — giant livestock farms also known as feedlots that house thousands of cows, chickens or pigs — produce staggering amounts of animal wastes. As the new NRDC report shows, the way these wastes are stored and used has profound effects on human health and the environment.
On most factory farms, animals are crowded into relatively small areas; their manure and urine are funneled into massive waste lagoons. These cesspools often break, leak or overflow, sending dangerous microbes, nitrate pollution and drug-resistant bacteria into water supplies. Factory-farm lagoons also emit toxic gases such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and methane. What’s more, the farms often spray the manure onto land, ostensibly as fertilizer — these “sprayfields” bring still more of these harmful substances into our air and water.
Yet in spite of the huge amounts of animal wastes that factory farms produce, they have largely escaped pollution regulations; loopholes in the law and weak enforcement share the blame. Legal action by NRDC led the Environmental Protection Agency to propose new federal standards for factory-farm pollution (the first update since 1976), but said they are not strong enough. NRDC said individual states need to step in with strict controls of their own.
Manure can also contain traces of salt and heavy metals, which can end up in bodies of water and accumulate in the sediment, concentrating as they move up the food chain. And lagoons not only pollute groundwater; they also deplete it. Many factory farms use groundwater for cleaning, cooling and providing drinking water.