Last month, the EPA denied our petition urging the agency to strengthen its factory farm water pollution regulations. This is just the latest example of EPA’s failure to address the mounting factory farm pollution crisis, and we won't let this go. On Friday, we sued the agency to secure much needed change.
Industrial-scale livestock operations, often called “factory farms,” operate like sewerless cities, generating unsustainable amounts of waste that wreak havoc on surrounding communities and ecosystems.
Factory farms contaminate drinking water with cancer-causing nitrates, flood homes with waste during storms and natural disasters and render water recreation unsafe.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for protecting waterways and communities from factory farm pollution. But for decades, it has failed to regulate this dangerous industry effectively — so we’re taking EPA to court.
Over six years ago, Food & Water Watch filed a rulemaking petition with EPA on behalf of over 30 environmental and environmental justice groups, urging the agency to strengthen its clean water rules governing this industry. Last year, we sued the EPA for a response. In August, the agency responded — it denied our petition.
Rather than moving forward with much-needed reforms, EPA is forming a committee to review yet more factory farm water pollution problems and make recommendations for the agency.
The lengthy process, expected to begin in 2024 and last 12-18 months, means the Biden administration may miss any opportunity to strengthen its factory farm regulations.
We already know that factory farms pollute our waters and are dangerous to surrounding communities. This study just means more delay. The lack of urgency displayed in EPA’s decision doubles down on the agency’s failure to protect our water and those who rely on it — but the fight to safeguard clean water is far from over.
On Friday, we sued EPA in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for its continued failure to hold factory farms accountable for their devastating impact on people and the planet.
For more than 50 years, EPA’s neglectful approach to regulating factory farms has allowed the industry to freely pollute our waterways, making its decision to keep kicking the can down the road on vital regulatory reform irrational and unjustified. If the court agrees, it can direct EPA to take long overdue action. We won’t stop until it does.
Food & Water Watch and its affiliated organization, Food & Water Action, are advocacy groups with a common mission to protect our food, water and climate.
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