EPA Issues Compliance Orders to Egg Farm, Cattle Feedlots
Actions aim to encourage producers to comply with permiting programs.
Compiled by staff
Published: Aug 26, 2011
Region 7 of the Environmental Protection Agency announced this week that it has issued administrative compliance orders to six concentrated animal feeding operations in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska directing those operations to correct a number of violations of the Clean Water Act.
The actions aim to encourage producers to comply with CWA and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permitting program, according to the announcement.
A compliance order was issued to commercial egg producer M.G. Waldbaum Co. in Bloomfield, Neb., after an inspection last September determined that the farm was discharging wastewater from manure stockpiles into a tributary of Little Bazile Creek.
The announcement said high levels of Escherichia coli and other pollutants were being discharged into the creek, and the order requires that the farm cease these discharges and install runoff controls to comply with CWA. The farm has subsequently applied for an NPDES permit, the announcement said.
Waldbaum is the egg production division of Michael Foods Group Inc. and is the sixth-largest commercial egg producer in the U.S.
A compliance order was also issued to Callicrate Feeding Co. in St. Francis, Kan., after an inspection in February identified "significant" NPDES permit violations, including failure to maintain adequate wastewater storage capacity, failure to meet nutrient management plan requirements, failure to conduct operations within areas that are controlled in a manner capable of preventing pollution and failure to maintain adequate records, according to the announcement.
The order requires that the feedlot meet all terms of CWA and its NPDES permit and nutrient management plan, the announcement said.
Also issued compliance orders for similar violations were Dave Uecker Livestock, a cattle feeding operation in Norfolk, Neb.; Reigle Farms, a cattle feeding operation in Madison, Neb.; Ritter Feedyards in Beemer, Neb., and S&S Cattle Co., a cattle feeder in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
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Tagged: farm, nutrient management, Environmental Protection Agency
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