Original Source: Investigate Midwest
Tankers used to spread manure from big dairy operations in Lenawee County, Michigan. photo by Keith Schneider, for The New Lede
In a rare rebuke to the industrial farm sector, the Michigan Supreme Court last week ruled that state environmental regulators have full authority to require big livestock and poultry operations to improve their handling of billions of pounds of manure that contributes to serious contamination of state waters.
The 5-2 decision issued Wednesday is one of the most significant environmental protection measures in Michigan in years. It comes after four years of battles between state officials and operators of poultry and hog feeding operations and large dairies over regulatory efforts to reduce agriculture-related water pollution. Farm-related nitrates and phosphorus from livestock and poultry operations have fouled Lake Erie and other state waters for decades.
“In the context of factory farms taking over rural areas there is, finally, recognition that regulatory bodies have authority for managing nutrient and animal waste pollution,” said Liz Kirkwood, executive director of Traverse City-based For Love of Water, a water law and policy center that intervened in support of the state. “It’s huge.”
The court’s decision recognizes that the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) not only has the power but also has the obligation under state and federal law to issue permits aimed at cleaning up Michigan’s water, keeping it free of dangerous pollutants, said Rob Michaels, managing attorney of the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center, another of the eight environmental organizations that filed a brief in support of the state.
Farm Bureau set back
The ruling is a rare defeat for industrial agriculture interests, particularly the Michigan Farm Bureau, which is supported by the major state associations for milk, pork and poultry producers. The bureau did not respond to requests for comment.
The Supreme Court ruling stems from a permit issued by EGLE in March 2020directing the state’s largest meat, milk and egg producers to improve practices for managing manure and other wastes produced by 291 concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.
Michigan ranks sixth nationally in dairy production with 440,000 cows on 900 farms. Michigan also has 1.2 million hogs, 62 million broiler chickens, 53 million turkeys, and 65 million chickens laying eggs. The animals generate an estimated 4 billion gallons of liquid manure and 60 million tons of solid manure annually, according to EGLE. Operators are not required to treat their livestock wastes before they spread the mammoth tide of feces and urine on fields.
The intent of the new permit was to compel producers to adopt changes in storage and spreading practices that would go a bit further than previous rules for keeping untreated manure from reaching state waters. The permit included a reduction of the limit on the amount of phosphorus that may be applied to land in order to halt harmful algal blooms that appear every summer in Lake Erie and other state lakes. It required farms to develop 35-foot-wide vegetated barriers and not spread manure within 100 feet of any surface water. And it limited the spreading of wastes during winter.