Opinion ID: 4253284
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: EPA Definitions of CAFOs

Text: Coast contends that the text of the CWA is unclear, and that we should defer under Chevron to the interpretation of the CWA by the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”). The EPA is not a party to this litigation and has taken no position in this litigation on the question before us. Coast points to EPA regulations defining CAFOs, contending that the regulations provide clarity that is lacking in the text of the statute. According to Coast, the regulations require us to hold that an aquatic animal production facility, and any pipes, ditches, and channels discharging pollutants OLYMPIC FOREST COALITION V. COAST SEAFOODS 11 from that facility, can be regulated as a point source only if it is a CAAPF. That is, according to Coast, pipes, ditches, and channels are not point sources if they discharge pollutants from an aquatic animal production facility that is not a CAAPF. A description of the EPA’s CAFO regulations shows why Coast is right in contending that the text of the CWA is unclear with respect to CAFOs, but wrong in contending that the lack of clarity is relevant to the question before us. As indicated above, a “concentrated animal feeding operation,” or CAFO, is listed in § 1362(14) as a point source. There are two subcategories of the statutory category CAFO. The first subcategory is a CAFO for land-based animals. This subcategory, called a CAFO in EPA regulations, is defined in 40 C.F.R. § 122.23. The criteria specified in the regulation are quite elaborate, and it is not necessary to describe all of them here. They include such things as the number and type of animals (e.g., 700 mature dairy cows, 2,500 swine each weighing 55 pounds or more, 55,000 turkeys), id. § 122.23(a), (b)(4), (6), and several factors relevant to designation as a CAFO (e.g., the size of the feeding operation and the amount of waste reaching waters of the United States, the location of the feeding operation relative to waters of the United States, and the means of conveying animal wastes into waters of the United States). Id. § 122.23(c)(2). The second subcategory is a CAFO for aquatic animals. This subcategory, called a CAAPF in EPA regulations, is defined in 40 C.F.R. § 122.24. There are two ways in which an aquatic animal production facility may be designated a 12 OLYMPIC FOREST COALITION V. COAST SEAFOODS CAAPF. First, a facility is a CAAPF if it meets the criteria set forth in Appendix C to 40 C.F.R. § 122. See 40 C.F.R. § 122.24(b). For cold-water aquatic animals such as salmon and oysters, a facility must meet the following criteria. The facility must “discharge at least 30 days per year”; it must produce at least 9,090 “harvest weight kilograms . . . of aquatic animals per year”; and it must feed at least “2,272 kilograms . . . of food during the calendar month of maximum feeding.” Appendix C (a). Second, a facility that does not meet the criteria of Appendix C may be designated a CAAPF by the Director of the EPA, or by an authorized state official, on a case-by-case basis after an in-person inspection of the facility. 40 C.F.R. §§ 122.24(b)–(c), 122.25(a). Factors to be considered in making such a designation are: “(i) The location and quality of the receiving waters of the United States; (ii) The holding, feeding, and production capacities of the facility; (iii) The quantity and nature of the pollutants reaching waters of the United States; and (iv) Other relevant factors.” Id. § 122.24(c). We agree with Coast that the EPA’s CAFO regulations resolve a lack of clarity in the CWA. Section 1362(14) provides that a “concentrated animal feeding operation” is a point source, but the words “concentrated” and “operation” are not self-defining. The regulations just described provide a precision that is lacking in the statutory language. However, the lack of clarity in the statutory term “concentrated animal feeding operation” is irrelevant here, for the meaning of that term is not the question before us. The question is whether “pipes, ditches, [and] channels” and “concentrated animal feeding operations” are all point sources. Sections 122.23 and 122.24 of the EPA regulations tell us only what a CAFO is. These regulations do not OLYMPIC FOREST COALITION V. COAST SEAFOODS 13 purport to tell us whether pipes, ditches, and channels that discharge effluents from non-concentrated aquatic animal production facilities are point sources.