EPA To Announce Rules For Penned Animals The federal Environmental Protection agency will propose new rules for "confined animal feeding operations," something it has tried to do and had challenged in court. "I have confidence that we have the legal authority to do this. I'm also confident we'll be sued," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water quality for the EPA. The new rules should be out this month but could arrive as late as November, he said. The EPA identifies a "CAFO" as an operation is which feed is brought to the animals instead of allowing room to graze. The number of animals penned varies by animal. A horse feeding operation, for instance, requires 150 horses to automatically be defined as a CAFO. A broiler operation usually requires at least 9,000 birds, according to EPA definitions. The new regulations will spell out permit requirements for CAFOs, but issuing of those permits will still be done by states, Grumbles said in an interview after his remarks. The EPA wants a nationwide standard for these operations that includes disposal of the manure or litter, he said. The number of concentrated animal feeding operations increased 230 percent between 1982 and 2002, according to a GAO summary released last month....