Groups petition feds to regulate feedlots under Clean Air Act

The Humane Society of the United States and other groups are petitioning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to start regulating confined-animal feeding operations under the Clean Air Act. The groups submitted the 69-page petition late last month asking that emissions of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and other gases be curbed. EPA spokesman Dave Ryan said the agency will review the petition and respond within 120 days. The EPA is wrapping up a study of emissions at 24 U.S. feedlots, but doesn't have enough information yet to decide whether confined-animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, need more regulation. "We really do not have a good handle on CAFO emissions," Ryan told the Twin Falls newspaper, The Times-News, in a story published Friday. He said that when the study is released next year, it should give the agency more information about how much pollution feedlots produce. The petition included past EPA figures plus information from United Nations reports about feedlots...read more