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The judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit have ruled that the Clean Water Act did not give the EPA the authority to require Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations to obtain discharge permits on the presumption they would discharge pollution to the waters of the state.
The EPA's assumption that a farm with no record of discharges would violate the law in the future was, in the judges' words--an attempt by EPA to create from whole cloth new liability provisions.
The court declared the farms only need permits if they actually discharged, which is a violation of the Clean Water Act. The likelihood that they would discharge was not enough to trigger the permitting process, which farmers find cumbersome and expensive.
The ruling is only binding for now in the Fifth Circuit, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
The EPA's assumption that a farm with no record of discharges would violate the law in the future was, in the judges' words--an attempt by EPA to create from whole cloth new liability provisions.
The court declared the farms only need permits if they actually discharged, which is a violation of the Clean Water Act. The likelihood that they would discharge was not enough to trigger the permitting process, which farmers find cumbersome and expensive.
The ruling is only binding for now in the Fifth Circuit, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
http://www.usagnet.com/story-national.php?Id=1030&yr=2011
