Charles Duhigg from the New York Times has written another excellent article on the Clean Water Act - this time on the massive feedlots that dump untreated animal waste into lagoons where it seeps into groundwater, onto vast waste fields where it runs off into waterways, and sometimes even directly into ditches that flow into lakes and streams.  The result is predictable - contaminated wells, contaminated streams, and an increasing number of rural areas of the U.S. that are no longer safe or pleasant to live in. 

This is not a new problem, but one recognized by Congress as early as 1972 in the Clean Water Act, which requires concentrated animal feeding operations to get the same kind of discharge permits as other types of industrial operations.  Unfortunately, EPA and state environmental agencies have never required treatment for animal waste as they have for industrial wastes and human sewage.  They instead have used the permitting program to authorize the kind of waste dumps that Mr. Duhigg writes about and shows through the video and slides.  Even small steps, such as prohibiting animal waste dumping on fields during the winter or during storms, are the exception, not the rule.     

NRDC has been working for more than a decade to try to get EPA to do its job through exposing the problems and solutions, educating the public and policymakers, and using the courts to enforce the Clean Water Act.  So far, EPA hasn't been interested.  It refused to require treatment of viruses and bacteria in animal waste, and it refused to require all large feedlots to get a discharge permit.  You might be surprised to know that EPA doesn't even know where all the factory farms are located.  The operators claim a right to keep that kind of information confidential, so EPA has to use flyovers or analysis of GIS maps to find the facilities that don't apply for permits. 

So, here's the good news.  EPA has another chance.  Last year, NRDC challenged a Bush administration feedlot rule that was riddled with loopholes.  EPA can settle that lawsuit - and more importantly, fix the problems that Mr. Duhigg identified in his article - by revising that rule.  There are a variety of excellent approaches for cleaning up these filthy facilities (and I see that many readers have already commented on them on-line).  Time to end the excuses, and to start on the solutions.