Owners of meat and poultry facilities across the country are telling the Environmental Protection Agency they will close their businesses before complying with a nearly year-old regulation that requires them to clean up their wastewater discharges.
The EPA proposed the regulation in December 2023, which would apply to wastewater discharges from meat and poultry products (MPP) facilities. The MPP industry discharges large amounts of pollutants, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, into the country’s waters.
It is not clear how these important regulations will affect food safety.
According to the EPA, many meat and poultry facilities are located near bodies of water affected by nutrient pollution. The agency’s proposal would use the latest pollution control technologies to reduce the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and other pollutants discharged into the nation’s waters by approximately 100 million pounds of pollutants per year, improving water quality for downstream communities and ecosystems are improved.
In rolling out the proposed rule, Radhika Fox, EPA Deputy Administrator for Water, said, “The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to following the law and the best available science to protect communities from pollution.”
According to Fox, EPA’s proposal to reduce water pollution from meat and poultry processing facilities will prevent millions of pounds of pollutants from entering our nation’s waters.
The meat and poultry ELGs were last amended in 2004 and currently apply to 180 of the estimated 5,300 meat and poultry facilities nationwide.
The US Poultry and Egg Association estimates that the EPA rule will cost the industry $1.16 billion per year to comply. The association predicts that 74 of its facilities will close instead of complying. Potential job losses in these scenarios would increase from 127,000 to 317,000 in the poultry sector alone.
A coalition of meat and poultry industry groups has said the EPA’s proposed wastewater guidelines will cost hundreds of millions more than the agency’s estimates, eliminate at least tens of thousands of additional jobs and close many processing facilities, resulting in hardship for livestock and poultry. producers.
“We believe that the proposed Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELG) would thwart the Biden Administration’s efforts and limit or reverse these impacts on small processors, rural employment, producer livelihoods, and a resilient food supply chain,” said the coalition.
The Coalition for the Meat and Poultry Products Industry made these comments in comments on the EPAs proposed rule revision of the ELGs for waste water discharged from meat and poultry processing and rendering facilities.
EPA estimates between 845 and 1,620 facilities would be subject to and incur costs if the proposed ELGs become final. The full comments are here.
The Meat and Poultry Products Industry Coalition consists of the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Meat Institute, the National Chicken Council, the National Pork Producers Council, the National Turkey Federation, the North American Renderers Association and the US Poultry & Egg Association.
EPA job loss estimates are much lower than industry estimates, which are disputed. A Koch Foods environmental manager estimates a job loss of 50,000, not 17,000 as the EPA estimated.
A division of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce concluded that the EPA would impose a $1 million penalty on every meat and poultry company in the country.
Job loss estimates are not the only concern. Consumers have experienced significant inflation in the prices of meat, poultry and eggs over the past four years. Production cuts due to factory closures are likely to push prices up even further.
The Clean Water Act requires EPA to revise industry-wide wastewater treatment limits – called effluent limitation guidelines or ELGs – to keep pace with innovations in pollution control technology. The first ELGs for facilities that process meat and poultry products were issued in 1974; the last revision was in 2004. ELGs are based on the performance of demonstrated wastewater treatment technologies and are intended to represent the greatest reduction in pollutants that is economically feasible for an entire industry.
In September 2021, the EPA announced its Preliminary Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 15, a detailed agency review of facilities that process meat and poultry products. That study led to the EPA’s decision to revise existing effluent regulations for these facilities.
The proposed rule would establish updated technology-based pollution limits that must be affordable and achievable using existing demonstrated technologies.
Furthermore, the implementation of these ELGs includes flexibility to achieve the established limits using different technologies or operational strategies. This flexibility serves as an incentive for facilities and control technology providers to develop even cheaper compliance options.
Background
Oil and grease, organic matter, salts, ammonia and significant amounts of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) are contaminants found in MPP wastewater. The MPP category is one of the largest sources of industrial nutrient pollution in the country. Nutrient pollution is one of the most widespread and costly environmental problems affecting surface water quality in the United States. An excess of nitrogen and phosphorus in surface water can lead to all kinds of problems, including: eutrophication And harmful algae bloomsthat have negative consequences for human health and the environment.
Rules summary
The proposed rule contains three options. For existing direct discharges, EPA’s preferred option would establish stricter effluent limits on nitrogen and, for the first time, limits on phosphorus. The preferred option would also, for the first time, establish standards for oil and grease pretreatment, total suspended solids and biochemical oxygen demand. The preferred regulatory option would apply to approximately 850 of the 5,000 MPP facilities nationwide.
The proposal includes two additional options on which the EPA is seeking public comment. These options would apply effluent limitations to additional direct and indirect discharges and establish nitrogen and phosphorus pretreatment standards for some indirect discharge facilities covered by the preferred option.
In addition to the three options, the EPA is asking for comment on a provision requiring separation and management of salt-rich waste streams. The EPA estimates that the proposed rule would reduce pollutants discharged through wastewater from MPP facilities by approximately 100 million pounds annually.
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