Citizens group petitions Environmental Protection Agency remove authority from the state EPA to issue pollution control permits for what they describe as "factory farms."

In a release they said,

"The newly formed Illinois Citizens for Clean Air and Water and the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Integrity Project today announced that they have filed a formal, legal petition urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to strip the Illinois EPA of its authority to issue pollution control permits for the state’s rapidly growing number of “factory farms,” which are also known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

The petition argues that the Illinois EPA’s authority to issue National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits should be revoked by the EPA because of the state’s continuing failure to implement regulations under the Clean Water Act. The petitioners have asked the EPA to initiate a public hearing on the matter and to begin formal proceedings to take back control over the state’s program.

Illinois Citizens for Clean Air and Water Organizer Kendall Thu, Ph.D. said, “Although the Illinois EPA has had the authority to administer the Clean Water Act permitting program for CAFOs since 1977, it has failed to meaningfully enforce it. In fact, there is not a single valid CAFO NPDES permit on the books. This flagrant regulatory neglect costs our communities dearly in terms of water pollution.”

The Peoria Journal reported on April 26, 2008, that a recent fish kill in Bureau Creek was the direct result of an unregulated, unpermitted, confinement swine facility in Princeton, IL. “The 750,000 gallon spill of untreated swine manure may have been prevented had the Illinois EPA been doing its job,” says Danielle Diamond, counsel for the citizen group.

Matthew Alschuler, farmer and local resident of the proposed mega-dairy in Jo Daviess County, Illinois said: “We feel that there is an urgent need to petition the EPA at this time because livestock production in Illinois is increasingly an industrial process, dominated by large facilities that confine thousands of poultry, swine, and dairy or beef cattle in CAFOs. One of these operations has been slated for construction near my home in Jo Daviess County. The proposed megadairy will be the largest of its kind in Illinois, yet no NPDES permit has been issued by the IEPA. Our feeling is that Illinois is woefully behind the curve compared to other states like Minnesota and Wisconsin which regularly issue permits and monitor facilities so they comply with the Clean Water Act”
Despite repeated attempts by Illinois family farmers and citizen groups to spur Illinois EPA to action, the state has resisted bringing the state’s growing number of factory farms into compliance.

Environmental Integrity Project Director Eric Schaeffer said: “Illinois’ operation of the permitting program fails to comply with the federal Clean Water Act. The IEPA has refused to issue required permits for CAFOs. Because Illinois is failing to carry out its responsibilities, the citizen groups are petitioning EPA to withdraw its approval of the state’s NPDES delegation and to assume administration and enforcement of the program. We have more than reasonable grounds to make this petition.”

ABOUT THE GROUPS

The Illinois Citizens for Clean Air and Water (ICCAW) is a state-wide coalition of family farmers and community groups advocating for sound policies and practices that protect the environment, human health, and rural quality of life from the impacts of large-scale, industrialized livestock production facilities in Illinois. A majority of its members are family farmers and rural residents that live near large-scale livestock facilities that have been adversely impacted by the problems they create.

The Environmental Integrity Project is a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization established in March 2002 to advocate for more effective enforcement of environmental laws.  EIP was founded by Eric Schaeffer, who was director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Regulatory Enforcement.  He resigned in 2002 after publicly expressing his frustration with efforts of the Bush Administration to weaken enforcement of the Clean Air Act and other laws."