The livestock and poultry industry is vital to our nation’s economy, supplying meat, milk, eggs, and other animal products; however, the past several decades have seen substantial changes in America’s animal production industries. As a result of domestic and export market forces, technological changes, and industry adaptations, food animal production that was integrated with crop production has given way to fewer, larger farms that raise animals in confined situations. These large-scale animal production facilities are generally referred to as animal feeding operations. CAFOs are a subset of animal feeding operations and generally operate on a larger scale. While CAFOs may have improved the efficiency of the animal production industry, their increased size and the large amounts of manure they generate have resulted in concerns about the management of animal waste and the potential impacts this waste can have on environmental quality and public health. Animal manure can be, and frequently is, used beneficially on farms to fertilize crops and to restore nutrients to soil. However, if improperly managed, manure and wastewater from animal feeding operations can adversely impact water quality through surface runoff and erosion, direct discharges to surface water, spills and other dry-weather discharges, and leaching into the soil and groundwater. Excess nutrients in water can result in or contribute to low levels of oxygen in the water and toxic algae blooms, which can be harmful to aquatic life. Improperly managed manure can also result in emissions to the air of particles and gases, such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and volatile organic compounds, which may also result in a number of potentially harmful environmental and human health effects. Most agricultural activities are considered to be nonpoint sources of pollution because the pollution that occurs from these activities is in conjunction with soil erosion caused by water and surface runoff of rainfall or snowmelt from diffuse areas such as farms and rangeland. However, section 502(14) of the Clean Water Act specifically defines point sources of pollution to include CAFOs, which means that under the act, CAFOs that discharge into federally regulated waters are required to obtain a federal permit called a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. These permits generally allow a point source to discharge specified pollutants into federally regulated waters under specific limits and conditions. These permits are issued by EPA or a state agency authorized by EPA to implement the NPDES program for that state. Currently, 45 states are authorized to administer the NPDES permit program, and their programs must be at least as stringent as the federal program. In 1976, in accordance with the Clean Water Act’s designation of CAFOs as point sources, EPA defined which poultry and livestock facilities constituted a CAFO and established permitting regulations for CAFOs. According to EPA regulations issued in 1976, to be considered a CAFO a facility must first be considered an animal feeding operation. Animal feeding operations are agricultural operations where the following conditions are met: animals are fed or maintained in a confined situation for a total of 45 days or more in any 12-month period, and crops, vegetation, forage growth, or post harvest residues are not sustained during normal growing seasons over any portion of the lot. If an animal feeding operation met EPA’s criteria and either met or exceeded minimum size thresholds based on the type of animals being raised, EPA considered the operation to be a CAFO. For example, an animal feeding operation would be considered a CAFO if it raised 1,000 or more beef cattle, 2,500 pigs weighing more than 55 pounds, or 125,000 chickens. In addition, EPA could designate an animal feeding operation of any size as a CAFO under certain circumstances. For example, if an animal feeding operation was a significant contributor of pollutants to federally regulated water, EPA could designate the operation as a CAFO. Appendix II lists the full text of EPA’s current CAFO definition, including the size thresholds established for small, medium, and large CAFOs. Under EPA’s 1976 CAFO regulations, certain animal feeding operations did not require permits. These included (1) those animal feeding operations that only discharged during a 25-year, 24-hour storm event—which is the amount of rainfall during a 24-hour period that occurs on average once every 25 years or more and (2) chicken operations that use dry manure-handling systems— systems that do not use water to handle their waste. In addition, EPA generally did not regulate animal waste that was applied to cropland or pastureland. In January 2003, we reported that although EPA believed that many animal feeding operations degrade water quality, it had placed little emphasis on its permit program and that exemptions in its regulations allowed as many as 60 percent of the largest operations to avoid obtaining permits. In its response to our 2003 report, EPA acknowledged that the CAFO program was hampered by outdated regulations and incomplete attention by EPA and the states. EPA pointed out that it had revised its permitting regulations for CAFOs to eliminate the exemptions that allowed most animal feeding operations to avoid regulation. The revisions, issued in February 2003 and known as the 2003 CAFO rule, resulted, in part, from the settlement of a 1989 lawsuit by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Public Citizen, in which these groups alleged that EPA had failed to comply with the Clean Water Act. EPA’s 2003 CAFO rule included the following key provisions: Duty to apply. All CAFOs were required to apply for an NPDES permit unless the permitting authority determined that the CAFO had no potential to discharge to federally regulated waters. Expanded CAFO definitions to include all poultry operations and stand- alone operations raising immature animals. The previous rule had applied only to poultry operations that used a liquid manure-handling system. The 2003 rule expanded the CAFO definition to all types of poultry operations, and EPA officials estimated that this revision could result in almost 2,200 additional poultry operations requiring a permit. More stringent design standard for new facilities in the swine, poultry, and veal categories. Under the previous rule, facilities were to be designed, constructed, and operated to contain runoff from a 25-year, 24- hour rainfall event; this continues to be the rule for existing facilities. For new facilities, the 2003 rule established a no-discharge standard that can be met if the facilities are designed, constructed, and operated to contain the runoff from a 100-year, 24-hour storm event. Best management practices. Operations would be required to implement best management practices for applying manure to cropland and for animal production areas. The rule required, among other things, specified setbacks from streams, vegetated buffers, depth markers in lagoons, and other impoundments for production areas to prevent or reduce pollution from the operation. Nutrient management plans. CAFO operations would be required to develop a plan for managing the nutrient content of animal manure as well as the wastewater resulting from CAFO operations, such as water used to flush manure from barns. Compliance schedule. The 2003 rule required newly defined CAFOs to apply for permits by April 2006 and existing CAFOs to develop and implement nutrient management plans by December 31, 2006. According to EPA officials, the 2003 rule was expected to ultimately lead to better water quality because the revised regulations would extend coverage to more animal feeding operations that could potentially discharge and contaminate water bodies and subject these operations to periodic inspections. Three laws provide EPA with certain authorities related to air emissions from animal feeding operations: the Clean Air Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA). Although these laws provide EPA with authority related to air emissions from various sources, they do not expressly identify animal feeding operations as a regulated entity. Specifically: The Clean Air Act authorizes EPA to regulate stationary and mobile sources of air pollution and emphasizes controlling sources that emit more than threshold quantities of regulated pollutants. Livestock producers and other agricultural sources whose emissions meet or exceed specific statutory or regulatory thresholds are therefore subject to Clean Air Act requirements. Although EPA has authorized states and local governments to carry out certain portions of the act, EPA retains concurrent enforcement authority. Taken together, CERCLA and EPCRA require owners or operators of a facility to report to federal or state authorities the release of hazardous substances that meet or exceed their reportable quantities so as to alert federal, state, and local agencies, as well as the public, to the release of these substances. Section 103 of CERCLA requires that the person in charge of a facility notify the National Response Center of any non-permitted release of “hazardous substances” in a reportable quantity as soon as he or she has knowledge of that release. Section 304 of EPCRA requires that the owner or operator of a facility at which a hazardous chemical is produced, used, or stored give immediate notice of a release of any “extremely hazardous substance” to the community emergency coordinator. Among the reportable substances that could be released by livestock facilities are hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. The reportable quantity for each of these hazardous substances is 100 pounds in a 24-hour period. Under these acts, EPA can assess civil penalties for failure to report releases of hazardous substances or extremely hazardous substances that equal or exceed their reportable quantities—up to $32,500 per day or $32,500 per violation for first time offenders. EPA is also working with USDA to address the impacts of animal feeding operations on air and water quality and public health. In 1998, EPA entered into a memorandum of understanding with USDA that calls for the agencies to coordinate on air quality issues relating to agriculture and share information.