Support a Sustainable Agricultural Future

Background

Although Pennsylvania’s Nutrient Management Act has been in effect for a decade, the pollution of Pennsylvania’s lakes, rivers and streams and the Chesapeake Bay from nutrient-laden runoff continues to be a serious problem. DEP estimates that 3,903 miles of the Commonwealth’s streams, in addition to downstream water bodies such as the Chesapeake Bay, are impaired by agricultural impacts.

Under the Nutrient Management Act, review of the regulations is mandated to occur every five years, but regulatory revisions are also sorely needed to address the shortcomings and loopholes in the regulations. The State Conservation Commission (SCC) is taking comments from the public on the proposed revisions.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania must revise the existing CAFO regulations to bring them up to at least the standard of new federal Clean Water Act regulations for CAFOs finalized under the Bush administration.

Sierra Club believes that CAFOs represent a flawed and unsustainable animal production model, with the potential to be highly polluting. Establishing strong regulations that will discourage CAFOs from using cheap and dirty production methods that pollute the air and water, and also undermine small-scale, more sustainable operations, is a priority for the Club.

We have serious concerns about several of the voids and weaknesses in DEP’s proposed revisions to the CAFO regulations. These concerns essentially fall into two categories:

• Which operations are defined as CAFOs?
• What are they required, and not required, to do?

Click here to return to Where to send comments page
Click here to read the proposed CAFO definitions
Click here to read the proposed CAFO permit requirements
Click here to read about proposed changes to Nutrient Management Regulations

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