Illinois Administrative Code › Title 35 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Part 501 - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Subpart A - AUTHORITY AND POLICY › Section 501.102 - Policy

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 28, July 12, 2024
a) It is the
				purpose of the General Assembly in adopting the Environmental Protection Act to
				restore, maintain, and enhance the purity of the air and waters of Illinois to
				protect health, welfare, property, and quality of life. An adequate supply of
				healthy livestock is essential to the well-being of Illinois citizens and the
				nation. They provide a daily source of meat, milk, and eggs. Their efficient,
				economic production must be the concern of both producers and consumers if we
				are to have a continued abundance of high-quality, wholesome food and other
				livestock products at reasonable prices. The policy must establish regulations
				that will provide a balance between a wholesome environment and the efficient
				production of adequate livestock products.
b) Livestock produce wastes that, when
				properly used, supply nutrients and organic matter to soils. The mere presence
				of livestock waste in a given location does not denote pollution, but may, when
				improperly stored, transported, or disposed of, undesirably affect the
				environment.
c) It is determined
				that the construction, establishment, and operation of specified livestock
				management facilities and livestock waste-handling facilities without
				environmental planning and safeguards or the use of specified livestock wastes
				for agricultural purposes causes, threatens, or allows the discharge of
				contaminants into the air or waters of Illinois so as to cause or threaten to
				cause pollution or to render those waters harmful to public health, safety, or
				welfare, to domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, and recreational
				uses, or to humans, livestock, wild animals, birds, or fish or other aquatic
				life.
d) It is determined that the
				construction, establishment and operation of livestock management facilities
				and livestock waste-handling facilities without environmental planning and
				safeguards or the use of livestock wastes for agricultural purposes causes,
				threatens, or allows air pollution.
The discharge of contaminants into
				the air of Illinois in sufficient quantities and of such characteristics and
				duration as to be injurious to human, plant, or animal life, to health, or to
				property, or to unreasonably interfere with the enjoyment of life or
				property.
[415 ILCS 5/3.115 ] It is
				recognized that the presence of odor is an inherent characteristic of livestock
				management facilities and livestock waste-handling facilities, and that the
				detection of that odor is not per se air pollution.
e) It is the purpose of this Chapter to
				prevent pollution of the air and waters of Illinois caused by failure to plan
				regarding proper environmental safeguards for the construction, location, and
				operation of specified livestock management facilities and livestock
				waste-handling facilities. A permit system is established to ensure that those
				activities take account of environmental considerations and to meet the
				requirements for federal approval, as established by the CWA. It is also the
				purpose of these regulations to prevent pollution from the numerous point and
				non-point discharges, both continuous and fluctuating, which are present in
				specified livestock management facilities or livestock waste-handling
				facilities. To this end, procedural safeguards are required, in addition to
				compliance with the CWA, NPDES filing requirements, and the feedlot category of
				point source effluent guidelines.