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 much larger scale. Most agricultural activities are considered to be nonpoint sources of pollution because the pollution that occurs is in conjunction with soil erosion caused by water and surface runoff of rain or snowmelt from diffuse areas such as farms or rangeland. However, the Clean Water Act specifically designates 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 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. EPA, or the states that EPA has authorized to administer the Clean Water Act, are responsible for issuing these permits. 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 requirements for CAFOs. According to EPA regulations, first 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 met or exceed minimum size thresholds based on the type of animal 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 can designate an animal feeding operation of any size as a CAFO if it meets certain criteria, such as being a significant contributor of pollutants to federally regulated waters. 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. The agency subsequently 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, also 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. 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 a permit under the Clean Water Act unless the permitting authority determined that the CAFO had no potential to discharge to federally regulated waters. Expanded CAFO definitions. All types of poultry operations, as well as all stand-alone operations raising immature animals, were included in the 2003 CAFO Rule. More stringent design standard for new facilities in the swine, poultry, and veal categories. The 2003 rule established a no-discharge standard for new facilities that could be met if they were designed, constructed, and operated to contain the runoff from a 100-year, 24-hour storm event. Best management practices. Operations were required to implement best management practices for applying manure to cropland and for animal production areas. Nutrient management plans. CAFO operations were 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, but, unlike the Clean Water Act, they do not specifically cite CAFOs as regulated entities. The Clean Air Act regulates any animal feeding operation, regardless of size, that exceeds established air emission thresholds for certain pollutants. For example, in certain specific situations, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, or particulate matter may be regulated. In addition, Section 103 of CERCLA and Section 304 of EPCRA require owners or operators of a facility to report to federal, state, or local authorities when a “reportable quantity” of certain hazardous substances, such as hydrogen sulfide or ammonia, is released into the environment. Together, CERCLA’s and EPCRA’s reporting requirements provide government authorities, emergency management agencies, and citizens the ability to know about the source and magnitude of hazardous releases. EPA also works with USDA to address the impacts of animal feeding operations on air and water quality and human health. In 1998, EPA entered into a memorandum of understanding with USDA that calls for the agencies to coordinate on air quality issues related to agriculture and share information. In addition, in 1999, the two agencies issued a unified national strategy aimed at having the owners and operators of animal feeding operations take actions to minimize water pollution from confinement facilities and land application of manure. To help minimize water pollution from animal feeding operations and meet EPA’s regulatory requirements, USDA, through its Natural Resources Conservation Service, provides financial and technical service to CAFO operators in developing and implementing nutrient management plans. Because no federal agency collects accurate and consistent data on the number, size, and location of CAFOs, it is difficult to determine precise trends in CAFOs. According to USDA officials, the data USDA collects for large farms raising animals can be used as a proxy for estimating trends in CAFOs nationwide. Using these data, we determined the following: Between 1982 and 2002, the number of large farms raising animals increased from about 3,600 to almost 12,000, or by about 234 percent. Growth rates varied dramatically by animal type. For instance, broiler chickens farms showed the largest increase, almost 1,200 percent, followed by hogs at more than 500 percent. In comparison, beef cattle farms grew by only 2 percent and layer chicken farms actually declined by 2 percent. The size of these farms also increased between 1982 and 2002. The layer and hog sectors had the largest increases in the median number of animals raised per farm, both growing by 37 percent between 1982 and 2002. In contrast, large farms that raised either broilers or turkeys only increased slightly in size, by 3 and 1 percent, respectively, from 1982 to 2002. The number of animals raised on large farms increased from over 257 million in 1982 to over 890 million in 2002—an increase of 246 percent. Moreover, most of the beef cattle, hogs, and layers raised in the United States in 2002 were raised on large farms. Specifically, 77 percent of beef cattle and 72 percent of both hogs and layers were raised on large farms. We also found that EPA does not systematically collect nationwide data to determine the number, size, and location of CAFOs that have been issued permits nationwide. Instead, since 2003, the agency has compiled quarterly estimates obtained from its regional offices or the states on the number and types of CAFOs that have been issued permits. However, these data are inconsistent and inaccurate and therefore do not provide EPA with the reliable data that it needs to identify permitted CAFOs nationwide. Without a systematic and coordinated process for collecting and maintaining accurate and complete information on the number, size, and location of CAFOs nationwide, EPA does not have the information it needs to effectively monitor and regulate these operations. In our report, we recommended that EPA develop a national inventory of permitted CAFOs and incorporate appropriate internal controls to ensure the quality of the data it collects. In response to our recommendation, EPA stated that it is currently working with its regional offices and states to develop and implement a new national data system to collect and record facility- specific information on permitted CAFOs. The amount of manure a large farm that raises animals can generate primarily depends on the types and numbers of animals raised on that farm, but can range from over 2,800 tons to more than 1.6 million tons a year. To further put this in perspective, the amount of manure produced by large farms that raise animals can exceed the amount of sanitary waste produced by some large U.S. cities. For example: A dairy farm meeting EPA’s large CAFO threshold of 700 dairy cows can create about 17,800 tons of manure annually, which is more than the about 16,000 tons of sanitary waste generated per year by the almost 24,000 residents of Lake Tahoe, California. A large farm with 800,000 hogs could produce over 1.6 million tons of manure per year, which is one and a half times more than the annual sanitary waste produced by the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—about 1 million tons—with a population of almost 1.5 million.