Due to your support, in a victory for clean water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced its intent to publish final updated water pollution control standards for slaughterhouses and animal rendering facilities by August 2025, following a lawsuit by Waterkeeper Alliance, Waterkeeper groups, and other community and conservation organizations late last year. The proposed new standards will be published for public comment before the end of 2023.
Every year, slaughterhouses and rendering facilities discharge millions of pounds of nitrogen and phosphorus, along with heavy metals and dozens of other pollutants, into rivers and streams across the United States.
In 2021, EPA reported that 74% of slaughterhouses and rendering facilities that discharge pollution directly into rivers and streams are within one mile of under-resourced communities, low-income communities, or communities of color.
The federal Clean Water Act requires EPA to set water pollution standards for industries—including slaughterhouses and rendering facilities, which are collectively known as Meat and Poultry Product or MPP facilities—and to review those standards each year to decide whether updates are appropriate to keep pace with advances in pollution-control technology. However, EPA has not revised water pollution control standards for slaughterhouses or rendering facilities since at least 2004. Ninety-five percent of these facilities are not subject to any federal water pollution standards at all, and a portion of the remaining five percent are governed by outdated standards published in the mid-1970s.
Today’s announcement sets a timeline for the revision process.
Please continue to support our work to ensure greater EPA oversight of Slaughterhouses and CAFOs by donating today. It is critical to properly implement and enforce the Clean Water Act to protect disproportionately impacted communities and the waterways we all use for drinking, swimming, and fishing. Help us be part of the solution.
We appreciate your support and dedication to drinkable, swimmable, and fishable water.
