Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Farmed Animal Advocacy Clinic Assists Groups in Urging the US EPA to Meaningfully Regulate CAFOs under the Clean Air Act by Eliminating its Fugitive Emissions Exemption

Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Farmed Animal Advocacy Clinic (FAAC) recently assisted public interest groups in commenting on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) reconsideration of its Fugitive Emissions Rule. The comment letter emphasizes the long-term effects of exempting the booming animal agriculture industry from crucial Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements and the opportunity to bring the industry into compliance.

EPA issued a regulatory rule in 2008 that determined whether fugitive emissions, or emissions that could not reasonably pass through a stack, chimney, vent, or similar opening, would be calculated when determining the applicability of New Source Review under the CAA. New Source Review applies to both new major sources as well as major modifications of existing sources. The 2008 “Fugitive Emissions Rule” only required specific industries to include fugitive emissions in calculating whether a modification was “major” and thereby triggering New Source Review. The agricultural industry was noticeably exempt from the list of specific sources and has largely escaped New Source Review since then. Along with this functional exemption, the percentage of Animal Feeding Operations (AFOs) and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in the United States rose significantly, exaggerating the impact of the Fugitive Emissions Rule exemptions.

Recently EPA announced plans to reconsider its Fugitive Emissions Rule and sought public comment. FAAC and the comment co-signers took this opportunity to highlight the inconsistency between the Fugitive Emissions Rule and the CAA’s goals of fairly regulating net emissions and mitigating air pollution generally. Exempting one of the most notorious polluters, the industrial animal agricultural industry, from New Source Review hardly makes sense considering those goals. The comment highlights these inconsistencies and urges EPA to hold AFOs and CAFOs accountable for their net emissions, regardless of how they are emitted. It also demands that these same operations be subject to New Source Review if fugitive emissions are to be considered when determining whether a change or operation is “major” to fully subject the industry to CAA’s policies and regulations.

Clinicians at FAAC are particularly sensitive to the impacts of the Fugitive Emissions Rule, not only because of its frustration of the CAA and any nationwide efforts toward improved air quality, but also because these emissions make animal agriculture operations even more dangerous. Studies and individual citizens report odors and chemicals emitting from these operations making living, working, or attending school near AFOs and CAFOs intolerable. Substances like ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and methane increase health risks to neighbors and farm workers and even further endanger animals being raised at these facilities.

The comments, authored by FAAC student clinicians Colleen McGrath and Morgan Muenster, commend EPA’s willingness to reconsider this rule and encourage the Agency to repeal the Fugitive Emissions Rule in a major step toward getting the animal agriculture industry’s emissions under control.