New permit to be required for noncompliant animal operations
RALEIGH -- State and federal officials have reached an agreement to require new permits in North Carolina for intensive livestock and poultry operations that violate their waste management plans and have waste discharges to surface waters.
In a Sept. 3 letter, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concurred with the proposal from the state Division of Water Quality (DWQ).
“North Carolina’s program already meets or exceeds federal guidelines and this agreement strengthens it,” said Preston Howard, DWQ director. “Growers will have a further incentive to comply, because the new individual permits will be site-specific and require a public notice.”
DWQ and the EPA “are now working on permit language and specifications,” Howard said. Once in place, every farm that has violated its waste plan along with having a discharge to surface waters will have to apply for a new individual permit.”
Currently, the EPA requires a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit in states that have farm operations with 2,500 or more hogs, 1,000 beef cattle, 700 dairy cows, 500 horses, 10,000 sheep and 30,000 poultry with a liquid waste management system. North Carolina requires a nondischarge permit for operations with 250 or more total hogs, 100 beef or dairy cows, 75 horses, 1,000 sheep and 30,000 poultry with a liquid waste management system.
DWQ issues both general and individual nondischarge permits. Individual permits, which are site-specific and more restrictive, are issued to farms with innovative waste handling systems and to those with serious compliance problems. Noncompliant farms will now have to get an individual NPDES permit.
Robert F. McGhee, director of EPA’s Water Management Division for the southeast region, stated in the letter to Howard that facilities with waste discharges outside of a 25-year, 24-hour storm event are subject to NPDES requirements.
McGhee wrote that “...discharges that result from chronic rainfall or catastrophic events can be allowed under an NPDES permit and, if permitted and in compliance with all applicable conditions of such permit, would not violate the federal Clean Water Act.”
# # #
Date Posted: 9/14/98
Return to Press Release Page.