Once known primarily as a beef cattle state, Texas is now also home to thriving dairy, chicken, egg, and hog production facilities, ranking among the top 10-15 states for each category of production. But the growth and consolidation of CAFOs in Texas has not come without a cost. CAFOs in Texas must manage and dispose of an estimated 280 billion pounds of manure each year. This waste burden has impaired at least 388 miles of Texas streams and over 21,000 acres of lakes. Air testing near cattle feedlots shows sporadic, high particulate levels above state and federal standards.
Neighbors testify that odors and dust have led many to sell their homesteads and move away.
In 1995, Texas regulators streamlined the permit process for CAFOs, limiting the ability of neighboring property owners to contest new permits or major expansions through the contested case hearing process. Lax enforcement allows CAFOs to pollute, sometimes for years, before action is taken. Despite the enormity of Texas' animal waste disposal burden, the state's environmental regulations lag behind what other CAFO-intensive states have done to protect their resources. Other states have begun to make corporate farms jointly liable for pollution at their contract grower sites, but Texas has not done so. Some states have begun addressing air quality issues by applying stricter ambient hydrogen sulfide emissions standards to CAFOs, or defining feedlot dust as an emission for purposes of the Federal Clean Air Act, while Texas has not.