IEPA Responds to Heavy Fed Pressure

[Mike Clifford]

Illinois EPA responds to U.S. EPA

 

Illinois EPA Director Douglas Scott responded Nov. 1 to a yearlong U.S. EPA investigation that uncovered widespread problems with the Illinois department's oversight of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

 

Scott said in a letter -- obtained through an open records request -- to U.S. EPA Region 5 Regional Administrator Dr. Susan Hedman that his agency has taken or will in the coming months act on each of the required and recommended actions in the investigation's report.

 

Those actions are:

 

* Compel additional information from applicants who had failed to submit complete applications by requesting that Region 5 issue administrative orders under Sections 308 and 309 of the Clean Water Act. It began doing so July 1.

 

* Seek approval to hire three new permit staff and continue to hold conference calls with the U.S. EPA at frequent intervals to review the status of CAFO applications.

 

* Attempt to amend the procedure to add a specific requirement for CAFOs to apply for a permit.

 

* Reinvestigate 45 older applications the agency determined to be from facilities that were no longer in service or did not require permits, and take action to resolve open applications.

 

* Complete the final CAFO inventory within 12 to 18 months. In the interim, it will develop a list of CAFOs and seek assistance from Region 5 in the funding and review of the statewide inventory.

 

* Develop and train staff in the use of standard operating procedure for CAFO inspections and an inspection checklist that aligns with the CAFO general permit by Aug. 1, 2011.

 

* Establish a process for providing written responses when requested and other appropriate procedures for responding to complainants by Feb. 1, 2011.

 

* Modify its guide for making enforcement decisions by Jan. 1, 2011, to assure that escalation of enforcement is consistent with other National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System violations and require that where a CAFO has a discharge or is designed, constructed, operated and maintained to discharge, a permit will be required. More cases likely will be referred to the U.S. EPA for prosecution.

 

 

http://www.thonline....e.cfm?id=301481

[Mike Clifford]

Ya gotta read the comments in this article, especially from "tequilashot".

http://www.journalstandard.com/news/business/x412541324/HOMES-and-Traditions-Dairy-meet-in-Appellate-Court

 

Like a train wreck...so twisted I couldn't peel my eyes away.

Probably the best newspaper comment I've ever read.

Very funny, in a twisted kind of way.

[Mike G]

Mike,

 

Since the IL EPA may have been turning a blind eye, it is good to see the Federal EPA exercising some oversight in this matter. Before the shouting on both sides geets too loud, however, I want to state what I like about this news.

 

First, the Feds step in only after the State EPA fails to perform according to law. Though some may not like how long it took to get this response from the State EPA, it is good to see the slow sure progress of the law.

 

Second, the action does not blow away CAFOs and all the income and jobs they produce. It brings them under control to act responsibly toward the environment. This strikes a nice balance between the Tea Party types who may be bent on repealing the Environmental Protection Act just on prilciple (because it is a Federal Law) and the Hell Bent for Leather Conservationists who want laws, laws, and more laws.

 

About 5 miles north of where I live, just north of the border in Wisconsin near Brodhead, there is a CAFO whose waste holding tank is very visible from the road. Every time we pass it, I review this scenario. If the tank ruptures, it empties into the Sugar River drainage. The Sugar flows into the Pecatonica River which flows into the Rock River north of Rockford. There are other CAFOs in that same watershed with the same environmental threat.

 

Now I need to ask the question. Why is so much attention being directed to one CAFO in Joe Davies County when there are many others across Illinois and Wisconsin going unnoticed? Are they no threat? This opens the real can of worms.

[Mike Clifford]

A great perspective, Mike.

 

"Hell Bent for Leather Conservationists"

They are called environmentalists.

I like to keep that distinction clear when I'm working towards anything "environmental".

Not any less important to the underlying issue of habitat preservation, but simply another approach to get it done.

[Mike G]

Mike,

 

I am trying to find words. Today it is hard to find words that are not tainted by political use. Conservative, Progressive, Liberal, and Environmentalist, for example, have all become labels to be used in name calling. It used to be you had to call a person a radical or extreme Conservative, Liberal, or Environmentalist if you wanted to tag him with a "bad name."

 

Another irony is that political Conservatives do not take a strong stance on Conservation.

 

Political Liberals are accused of passing too many laws-very illiberal.

 

Here's a test. Ronald Regan is proported to have said,"How many trees do they need to look at, anyway?" Is this a common sense statement about radical environmentalism? Is this a radically conservative statement about common sense environmentalism?

[Scott Ferguson]

Mike,

Now I need to ask the question. Why is so much attention being directed to one CAFO in Joe Davies County when there are many others across Illinois and Wisconsin going unnoticed? Are they no threat? This opens the real can of worms.

 

It's hard to put the toothpaste back into the tube. The CAFO in Jo Daviess county is not in full production yet. They'd like to expand and be huge. They aren't yet so the fight is too keep them small or close them down. There isn't much anyone can do about existing CAFOs... until they screw up.

[Ben Lubchansky]

It's hard to put the toothpaste back into the tube. The CAFO in Jo Daviess county is not in full production yet. They'd like to expand and be huge. They aren't yet so the fight is too keep them small or close them down. There isn't much anyone can do about existing CAFOs... until they screw up.

 

I'd like to chime in here, and pardon me for being way out of the conversation for a while. So, please pardon me for being redundant, if I re-invent the wheel here. Also I don't mean to be contradictory but I want to state that actually we do indeed have tremendous ammount of power for deealing with CAFO's already in existence. It's called consumer advocacy and it means voting with every dollar you spend. If you don't agree with CAFO's (and I , for one, do not) then start doing everything you can to not buy their products. Though massive institutions that broker billions of dollars, their real viability hinges on relatively slim annumal growth margins, because for them just a few percentage points translates into millions if not tens of millions of dollars and powerfully affects the ability to attract the coveted dollars of investors.

 

So, if you disagree with it, don't buy it. I know that's damn hard, but it's rewarding too. And let tell you I am no vegetarian. I make my own bacon and proscuitto. I own three chest freezers and buy animals by the whole and half. I raise and butcher 30 chickens a year for my family, plus the 6 laying hens i 'retire' every other year. I eat them and in some cases skin/ cure their pelts for use in tying my bass flies. For milk I recommend seeking out Kilgus Dairy of Fairbury, Illinois. I also run a personal chef business featuring local, seasonal foods for about $13.00/ person/meal - delivered. I never buy factory farmed meat for my family or customers and I have a modest, blue collar income. I do this on a tiny corner lot in the City of Urbana, Illinois.

So there are many steps you can take. Start somewhere. There is pleasure and pride to be taken in making real relationships at the farmer's market and making a comittment to their business, and your own health as well as the health of our places.

Believe me the power to speak with your purchasing dollars is evidenced by the the fear that Tyson has of the small, 'free range' poultry flock versus, say its scale competitor Swanson or whomever.

 

I don't mean to diatribe, but while real regulation is also necessary, truly, the power here is ours to exercise. Once these places cease to be enormously profitable, they will cease to be.

[Mike Clifford]

It's hard to put the toothpaste back into the tube. The CAFO in Jo Daviess county is not in full production yet. They'd like to expand and be huge. They aren't yet so the fight is too keep them small or close them down. There isn't much anyone can do about existing CAFOs... until they screw up.

 

This one is not operational at this time.

That approval has not been awarded as of yet.

They are discharging into the waters of the state before it is even functional.

[Mike Clifford]

Post of the year, right there Ben

Thanks for sharing the insight.

No truer words can be spoken.