Which Is Not A Negative Impact Of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (Cafos)

Index

What is a CAFO?
What pollutants practice CAFOs produce?
Are there are different kinds of CAFOs?
What's in CAFO waste?
How exercise CAFOs pollute water?
How practise CAFOs pollute air?
How practice CAFOs impact human health?
Are CAFOs sustainable?
Do CAFOs need taxpayer subsidies?
How are CAFOs regulated and permitted?
About CAFO Waste & Spreading
Water Quality Issues
CAFO Nuts
CAFO Regulations & Regime Subsidies
Go Help

What is a CAFO?

A CAFO, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation , is an industrial-sized livestock functioning.

The quantity of urine and feces from even the smallest CAFO is equivalent to the urine and carrion produced by 16,000 humans.
A CAFO can business firm anywhere from hundreds to millions of animals.
The animals in CAFOs are virtually oft dairy cows, hogs, or chickens.
CAFO animals are confined at least 45 days or more per year in an area without vegetation.
CAFOs include open up feedlots, also every bit massive, windowless buildings where livestock are bars in boxes or stalls.
Other terms used to describe a CAFO: mega farm, animal factory, hog motels, poop factories, industrial farms.

(Also meet CAFO in the glossary and CAFO Basics below.)

What pollutants practise CAFOs produce?

CAFOs produce huge amounts of animal sewage and other pollutants.
Brown liquid enters Lime Lk Drain, with plume clearly visible.
CAFO owners and operators spend millions of dollars on technologies that go far possible to produce massive quantities of milk, eggs, and meat, withal they resist investing in technologies and practices to properly treat the wastes that are by-products of this industry:

The corporeality of urine and feces produced by the smallest CAFO is equivalent to the quantity of urine and carrion produced by 16,000 humans.
CAFO waste is usually non treated to reduce disease-causing pathogens, nor to remove chemicals, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, or other pollutants.
Over 168 gases are emitted from CAFO waste product, including hazardous chemicals such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and methane.
Airborne particulate matter is found near CAFOs and can comport disease-causing bacteria, fungus, or other pathogens.
Animals oft die in CAFOs. Their carcasses, often in large numbers, must be dealt with.
Infestations of flies, rats, and other vermin are commonplace around CAFOs and therefore around CAFO neighbors.

Often y'all'll hear owners of CAFOs argue that the wastes produced past the livestock provide nutrients that help them offset the use of synthetic fertilizers. The sheer amount of wastes produced, withal, often overwhelms the ability of the land and crops to absorb CAFO wastes.

Are at that place different kinds of CAFOs?

Yeah.

Ane type of CAFO houses livestock in buildings the animals seldom leave. Removing wastes from these buildings is a major challenge.

Dairy and pig CAFOs often use clean h2o to wash animal wastes and contaminants from the buildings into waste-storage structures or lagoons.
Poultry CAFOs use dry out-waste systems. The waste material falls from animal cages to the floor, where it is scraped out of the building periodically or collected on conveyer belts and moved to composting or storage sites.

Another type of CAFO is the feedlot , which keeps the animals outdoors in pens. Here the manure waste matter accumulates on the ground, oft washing off into nearby ditches and streams.

What'south in CAFO waste?

In improver to plant nutrients such equally phosphorus and nitrogen, CAFO waste product is likely to contain:

antibiotic-resistant bacteria
hormones
chemicals used in livestock care
milkhouse wastes
cleaning agents
ammonia and heavy metals
silage leachate
millions of gallons of h2o contaminated by all of the above.

CAFO waste is often stored untreated in gigantic anaerobic waste storage structures or pits for upward to half-dozen months. Later on storage, it is spread on subcontract fields for disposal. This is where CAFO wastes often enters surface water.
Lime Lake is shown bright green with an algae bloom, downstream from drainn shown in photo above.
Nutrients in this CAFO waste tin can cause bright-light-green algae blooms in ditches, streams, and lakes. Every bit these surface-water algae blooms die off, the oxygen in the water is depleted. What does this do? It can lead to fish kills. Additionally, drinking-water plants must remove these nutrients before water is fit for consumption.

Pathogens such as E.coli bacteria, cryptosporidium, and salmonella, all of which can crusade sickness or death in humans and animals, may be present in CAFO wastes.

How practice CAFOs pollute water?

Water pollution is possible at almost whatsoever point in a CAFO's operation.

In the production expanse, spills, overflows, and tracking of wastes on tractor and truck tires can crusade surface runoff of contaminants.
Stormwater that mixes with manure wastes, silage leachate, or milkhouse wastes tin flow into drains.
Pipes or hoses carrying wastes tin can intermission or become unattached. Waste storage structures can overflow or burst.
Field tiles or catch basins can be installed that drain wastes directly into surface waters.

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Information technology may have dozens of trips per day by semis or tanker trucks to dispose of CAFO waste. These trucks haul the wastes from the product expanse waste product-storage structures to fields that are often many miles abroad.

1 of the main sources of CAFO-caused pollution in Michigan comes from discharges of manure and other wastes through the soil into field drainage tiles , which carry the wastes straight into canton drains and streams.

When CAFO wastes are applied to subcontract fields, water pollution can be caused by overapplication of wastes, direct runoff into surface waters, or by traveling through the ground- or catch basins into field tiles or drainage ditches that discharge straight into surface waters. Tests have shown that waste practical to the surface of a field can take a little as 45 minutes to achieve the field tiles 3 to 4 feet below the surface.

Manure wastes are also sprayed from travel irrigators , trucks, tractors, or draglined. This waste tin flow directly into surface waters due to wind, by direct discharge from running over a bleed or waterway, or through malfunctions of the equipment.

Groundwater pollution tin be acquired past leaking waste storage structures, and improper or over-application of wastes on fields. The apply of injection systems for shooting wastes directly into the soil is encouraged as a method to keep scent from CAFO land application downwards, withal there is significant concern that this could simply lead to quicker travel time through the soils into field drainage tiles. Some CAFO owners have converted field drainage tiles into de facto septic systems by plugging them with gate valves and other devices. These systems at best only filibuster the pollution and don't go along pollution from flowing to groundwater. They certainly don't remove pathogens. Groundwater is hard to monitor, so the extent and source of contamination are often harder to pinpoint than surface h2o contamination.

How practise CAFOs pollute air?

Air pollution from CAFOs can come up through numerous methods. Some tin cause bad odors, but others emit several dangerous gases every bit manure and biological materials pause down in the absence of oxygen such as in the bottom of a manure pit. Methane, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide are some of the gases. Exposure to hydrogen sulfide tin crusade neurological problems, including extreme anger, depression, and affliction. The image at right shows a family raising the American flag in their yard, while a hydrogen sulfide meter shows concentrations of the contaminant at 2 parts per million in October 2008. The source CAFO can be seen beyond the pino tree. Unfortunately, this home is too surrounded on 3 sides by fields oft used past the CAFO for manure disposal.

Some of the sources of CAFO air pollution are:

Barns where the animals are housed

The air pollution inside the buildings is potentially deadly to the animals and humans inside if the fans ever finish operating. Normally the fans just blow the contaminated air to the outside where it can pollute the whole community. Poultry operations accident ammonia and particulate matter, including feathers and chicken feces out of the buildings.

Waste matter storage structures

Hog operations oft build the waste storage construction immediately beneath the surface area where the animals are kept, with slats in the floors to let wastes to simply drib into the pit.

Handling of the wastes

The CAFO wastes stored in waste storage structures is not treated or aerated, often resulting in farthermost off-gassing of pollutants such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S ) when the wastes are transported and sprayed onto farm fields.

Techniques used in land application

For instance, once or twice each twelvemonth many liquid waste matter CAFO systems will scrape the solids out of the bottom of the waste storage structures and spread these thick, fermented wastes onto farm fields, causing fifty-fifty worse air pollution.

How do CAFOs impact human health?

CAFOs may cause wellness effects to their neighbors from pollution damage to the air, land and h2o.
Over 168 gases are emitted from CAFO waste, including chancy chemicals such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and methane.
Hydrogen sulfide poisoning can cause irreversible brain harm, dizziness, headache, nausea, sore throats, sinusitis, burning optics, and other illnesses.
When phosphorus and nitrogen are over-applied to fields, the nutrients can motion through the soil into field tiles to surface water, or through soil to groundwater and drinking water.
Elevated levels of nitrates in drinking water tin cause "blue babe syndrome", a potentially fatal blood disorder.

Are CAFOs sustainable?

No.

CAFOs are resources-intensive and unsustainable.
CAFOs beast-raising practices are neither economically viable or sustainable.
CAFOs utilize large amounts of electricity for lighting, equipment, milkers, pumps, and irrigators.
CAFOs use fuel in tremendous quantities to run tractors, gas motors, and pumps, and to transport milk, waste, supplies, and chemicals.
CAFOs use millions of gallons of Michigan'southward clean fresh groundwater every day to dilute waste and to wash manure from milking parlors and CAFO barns.

Practise CAFOs need taxpayer subsidies?

Yes.

CAFOs can't survive without taxpayer subsidies. CAFOs receive many subsidies, such as milk price support guarantees, federal EQIP money through the Subcontract Bill , Development Right Agreements, tax abatements, grants, bonds, even economic development funds for roads.

These taxpayer supports not only encourage the growth of this industry, they undercut the ability of traditional livestock operations to compete with CAFOs. Without the subsidies, CAFOs would neglect financially. Sierra Club is a member of the Less=More coalition that aims to end subsidies to polluting manufacturing plant farms to level the playing field for sustainable livestock farmers. Less support for polluting factory farms ways a more than sustainable Michigan. Learn more than at MoreforMichigan.org.

How are CAFOs regulated and permitted?

Federal laws found minimum standards for the regulation of whatsoever action that causes air pollution or water pollution. However, through aggressive lobbying by the promoters of CAFOs, federal laws for the environmental oversight of CAFOs are extremely weak.

Currently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provides no regulation of air pollution problems from CAFOs. Under the Right-to-Know provisions of CERCLA 42 U.s.C. §11001 et seq. (1986), also known as Championship Three of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) , the Emergency Planning and Customs Right-to-Know Act - otherwise known as EPCRA (pronounced EP-kra) - was enacted by Congress equally the national legislation on customs safety. This police force is designed to help local communities protect public health, safety, and the environment from chemic hazards. CAFOs are required to written report emissions of some pollutants, nearly notably ammonia. This requirement led to disclosure that the largest emitter of ammonia in the country is a dairy CAFO in Oregon.

The federal Make clean H2o Act does provide some regulation of CAFOs, although interpretations of the extent of those requirements are existence litigated. State laws must be at to the lowest degree as restrictive as the federal law, only in Michigan and some other states it has required citizens to bring challenges to land'due south delegation under the Clean Water Human activity to force the agencies to implement the laws. Federal law requires that any CAFO which has had an illegal discharge into surface waters must obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit in order to go on operations. Several states (including Michigan) at present require NPDES permits for all CAFOs, including new ones.

Information technology is important to review the regulations in your state in gild to understand what is allowed and not allowed. ( EPA links to state plan websites. )

State and federal agricultural agencies often play a role in establishing voluntary standards that CAFOs and other livestock operations are expected to bide by. In some instances, the agricultural agencies will act as the gatekeeper for securing any enforcement actions by the state, particularly in the expanse of air pollution. In Michigan, for instance, the Department of Agronomics is given the responsibility for investigating air pollution complaints from CAFOs, although they take no enforcement authority. Except in an emergency, the agriculture director must make a referral to the Department of Environmental Quality earlier whatever action can be taken by the environmental agency regarding those complaints.

CAFO Waste & Spreading

Is it illegal to spread CAFO manure on the ground?

No, it is not illegal to spread CAFO manure waste on the basis. While this website describes many different situations in which a CAFO may exist spreading their waste matter on land, and many possibly harmful effects of that activeness, it is not of itself illegal. It is illegal if a CAFO spreads waste material in such a manner that it moves off the country and into waters of the state, and this "belch" causes or contributes to a violation of Michigan's water quality standards in waters of the land.

What is in CAFO manure?

CAFO manure contains the animals' feces and urine, plus, the definition also includes other materials such equally bedding, compost, and other raw materials. CAFO manure is too loaded with the plant nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, which can cause algae blooms if released to surface h2o, and pathogens such equally Escherichia coli (E. coli) , and other fecal coliforms.

Manure may also comprise:

growth hormones used to increase the production of milk in the cows
antibiotics that keep the animals from getting sick
chemicals used to clean the milkhouse equipment or used as additives to lagoons
milkhouse wastes discharged on the floor while milking
birthing fluids from cows calving
blood from birthing
silage leachate from the chopped corn in bunkers
production surface area waste from the equipment existence done or used
contaminated stormwater stormwater is considered clean unless information technology's immune to come into contact with manure
copper sulfate used in the footbaths for cows before they are led into the milking parlor.

There are 168 chemicals in and around manure according to a 2001 USEPA Report (Appendix A, folio 235-244).

Can a methane digester solve the CAFO's waste product problem?
Non really. This is similar capturing a fart in a jar. It may assistance reduce some odors, just it has astringent limits.

Methane digesters practice not :

reduce nitrogen or phosphorus (in most schemes)
reduce liquid in the manure
better the waste material as a fertilizer (it is still distributed on fields)
save taxpayers money

Can composting the manure solve the CAFO's waste problem?

In short, no. And, every bit you read the bulleted list beneath, call back that a Michigan CAFO tin can accept a compost pile within 200 feet of its neighbor.

In improver to manure and other materials, CAFO compost piles may have up to twenty,000 pounds of dead animals in one pile (and if just i creature had mad cow disease and this pile is spread on the state, the prions could enter the food or milk supply). For more information on prions, run into the Center for Disease Control Prion Diseases webpage.
CAFO compost piles draw vermin, rats, flies, coyotes, and vultures.
Near CAFO compost sites do not have runoff containment structures, and the food-rich liquids tin cause algae blooms if they attain surface waters.
the odors emitted tin can become very strong if the composting is not done correctly.

What is a CAFO belch?

Discharge means any direct or indirect release of any waste material, waste effluent, wastewater, pollutant, or any combination thereof into whatsoever of the waters of the land or upon the footing. View theDEQ Wastewater Discharge Permit Rules.

A CAFO belch may be chosen many things: a spill, blow, terrorist attack, or blamed on birds, cherry trees, deer, horses, geese, raccoons, or the neighbors. But rarely is it called what it is: a mess from the CAFO with 3,500 cows.
A CAFO belch can be brown and odour similar animal waste matter; information technology can exist white and odour similar bad milk; it tin can be light-green and sour which may be leachate from the silage (chopped corn that they feed to cows).
A CAFO discharge may also be diluted with stormwater. In this case, the CAFO maxim is "dilution is the solution to pollution."

Are CAFO operators immune to spread animal waste on snow?

spreading manure on snow with ponding The existent reply should be "no, not under whatsoever circumstance."

Instead the answer to this question is "maybe". How would you find out?

First notice out if the CAFO has any restrictions in its NPDES let or consent guild -- if they accept i--for spreading waste on snow.
Next larn which fields in each CAFO's Comprehensive Nutrient Direction Plan (CNMP) are allowed to have winter application on them, and whether it can exist solids or liquids.
And so discover out the Manure Application Risk Index (MARI) for each field. This research grant proposal from the Michigan Land University to the U.Southward. Geological Survey (USGS) describes utilize of the Manure Application Run a risk Index for evaluating fields for wintertime manure land application.

Whether or not a CAFO is immune to spread waste on snowfall depends either on what is in their Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan , or on whether the CAFO has an order from the state with specifics for winter awarding. This may be determined on a field by field ground. Many CAFOs will spread waste on snow just to get rid of information technology and and so hope they don't get defenseless. The problem is that when the snowfall melts, the manure will run off into the nearest ditch or stream, considering frozen footing cannot absorb water. Often the manure on the snow will even cause the snowfall and ice to melt. If you observe CAFO operators spreading waste on snow or frozen footing, and you know their CNMP and NPDES let doesn't let them to, you should contact the MDEQ district office , or call the Pollution Emergency Alert System (PEAS).

Are CAFO Operators allowed to dump manure in piles on fields?

This is a grey-area question. By dumping manure piles, a CAFO creates an off-site production area of waste product. This off-site production area cannot discharge to waters of the state. Come across folio half-dozen of the DEQ Wastewater Discharge Permit Rules for the official definition of "production area".

How long can manure be piled at a site? The Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan may contain information on this exercise.
A manure pile tin cause fly outbreaks, and invite coyotes, vultures, and rats if expressionless animals are in these piles.
If the piles are placed near homes, the emissions may cause disease to residents.

Are CAFO Operators immune to spread waste before precipitation or rainfall?

This tin can besides be a cloudy area. See Instructions for Determining Atmospheric precipitation Forecasts ( pages 55-56 of this CAFO permit guide) to meet how conditions forecasts are applicable to CAFOs. Yous may use the instructions along with the CAFO's CNMP to determine if they are spreading waste in violation of their NPDES let.

The photo at correct, taken in Lenawee County just before a predicted rainfall, shows manure waste material application on a adequately steep slope.

Is there a time of year when CAFOs can't spread wastes?

Non necessarily, this may be dissimilar for each CAFO. Each CAFO's NPDES permit guides what can and cannot be done.

Are there fields CAFOs can never spread waste on?

Yes. Soil testing for phosphorus must be washed for fields that will be used for country application of CAFO wastes. If the soil tests indicate loftier amounts of phosphorus, a CAFO cannot employ waste to that field. That information is included in the Comprehensive Nutrient Management Program.

How far away does the CAFO waste have to stay from water, lake, wetland, and so on?

This refers to a "setback", and the required setback information would be found in the CAFO's NPDES permit.

Is it legal for CAFO operators to spill the waste matter in the road?

No. All the same, you would need to contact your local road commission or police department to file a complaint on this issue. Unless the spill gets into waters of the state, or is an extreme corporeality, it is necessary to contact the government agency that has jurisdiction over roads.

CAFOs' Impacts on Humans

Do I need to worry near a CAFO going in near my business firm?

Yes. You need to organize and educate your neighbors as presently every bit possible. See How to Cease Approval of a New CAFO.

What will happen to my property values with a CAFO nearby?

Holding values will drop the closer in proximity to a CAFO that you lot alive. Information tin be institute from realtor.com and other sources.

How does the CAFO waste terminate upwards on my belongings?

CAFO waste tin be sprayed, irrigated, blown by the air current, spread farther through surface ponding of rainfall, or from runoff that may reach your property. High powered fans used to cool the hundreds of animals in the buildings often accident out bedding or other contaminated materials.

Are there human being wellness furnishings from exposure to CAFO manure?

Yes. Many people have get ill living near and working at CAFOs. Some people develop breathing bug, coughs, headaches, hydrogen sulfide poisoning, and ammonia poisoning. Hither are some manufactures from Environmental Health Perspectives :

air pollution

Air pollution from industrial swine operations and blood pressure of neighboring residents
State application of treated sewage sludge: community health and environmental justice
EHP – Grit Emissions from Cattle Feed Yards: A Source of Antibiotic Resistance?

drug resistance

Multidrug-Resistant and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Hog Slaughter and Processing Plant Workers
Antibiotics, Bacteria, and Antibiotic Resistance Genes (Sentinel the Nascence of a Superbug)

What do I practise when they are spreading CAFO waste next to my house?

Outset, this activity may non be illegal. But in that location are provisions the state applicator must follow to protect your home and property. So starting time, to be safe - get your children indoors, close your windows, and take downward your laundry. Then start documenting your observations, in case the activity is causing a problem.

Take time-stamped pictures of the field where waste is beingness spread;
Have fourth dimension-stamped pictures of the awarding equipment;
Get the weather forecast or written report from the National Weather Service and save the report on your computer, or print it. Come across Instructions for Determining Precipitation Forecasts ( pages 55-56 of this CAFO permit guide) to see how weather forecasts utilise to timing of CAFO activities. You may use the instructions forth with the CAFO'south CNMP to make up one's mind if they are spreading waste in violation of their NPDES permit.
Become your notebook, annotation the date and time and all your observations: if the CAFO is spreading waste material over any field tiles , next to county drains , adjacent to whatsoever open waterways, virtually a tile riser , over a grab bowl , near a dike , or about your h2o well. Draw sketches, indicate which manner is north, roads, buildings, homes.

Additionally, certificate:

how far the application is from your property;
if you or your family are feeling ill, which may indicate emissions of a toxic gas. (An odor will non make y'all sick. An emission volition give you a headache, nausea, burning sinuses, sore pharynx.)
if you smell smell, and what it smells like (for instance, it could smell similar manure, or similar soured milk, or fifty-fifty similar diesel fuel.)

How practise I document the activities I observe about the CAFO?

In a nutshell, you volition take pictures, take water samples, and fifty-fifty smell the h2o at your own take chances (smell it for manure or another wrong scent). Deport a notebook and keep information, such as a periodical or a checklist. Have someone else verify your data, if at all possible.

Tin I take photographs of a CAFO?

Yes. Pictures ideally should show the fourth dimension, date, and location of what is happening. This is particularly important if rainfall is predicted and a facility is land-applying waste material anyhow, perhaps even in violation of its NPDES permit or consent order. (see MDEQ'southward CAFO website for more data on this situation).

Without trespassing onto private property, and only working from the road-right-of-way, or from the property of a landowner who gave y'all permission, have photos of:

operations to document their practices. These may prove illegal practices such as pumping into a waterway or county bleed or into a take hold of bowl.
buildings to show number of buildings and location. Pictures here may too show dead animals.
activities to evidence land application of waste, types of hauling equipment. Document excavation or tiling activities , too.
people just if they are harassing or stalking you lot, such equally following you in your vehicle or blocking your path. If someone is harassing you, you should likewise call the constabulary or 911. Photos of people may also be taken if they are doing something you believe is illegal that would be a violation of the CAFO'southward NPDES h2o discharge permit or consent society , if the CAFO has i.

How can I protect myself while monitoring?

Notify the constabulary or local sheriff that you and a companion will exist monitoring water near CAFOs, as explained below.
Bring someone with you if at all possible.
Calibrate any equipment alee of time to save time while at the monitoring location.
Make sure all your equipment is turned on ahead of time and ready to be used.
Employ the two-infinitesimal rule : try to do everything you need to do as fast, but as accurately, as possible. This includes using the dissolved oxygen (Do) meter to measure Practice and water temperature, grabbing a water sample, using a meter to measure the pH, using the ammonia strips, taking pictures, and and then on.

Send discover to the local sheriff or state police of: which CAFOs you will be monitoring and where, what type and color of vehicle you'll exist in, plus the license plate number. Tell them your and other monitors' names, addresses, and phone numbers, and cell telephone numbers. Tell them clearly what you are doing and allow them know you are monitoring the water or air. This way, if someone complains near your activities, the law volition know where to observe you, and can call you.

You lot must never trespass. Cheque for road right-of-way distances. Realize that country highways are different than local roads. A CAFO operator may file charges against you if you are trespassing on their property. If you lot plan to access a stream away from the route, you must get permission from the landowner.

What should I exercise if I see:

a cleaved lagoon or waste matter storage pit
waste running out of a pipage, a tube, a truck, an irrigator
ponding or pooling of waste material on fields
dead animals
syringes and other related equipment dumped
digging, tiling or dumping at night
earth-moving equipment at work

If you run into any of these practices or waste products at a CAFO, you should document it with photos that tape the time and date. If yous believe a violation has occurred, contact the appropriate bureau with your concerns.

Tin the CAFO get later me if I written report them?

Yes. A CAFO tin go subsequently you if you written report them. Some agencies take anonymous tips, and you can study them that style. Remember that documentation is extremely of import, so be diligent in your investigation before yous written report a violation. Always document your investigation, and always exist credible.

Water Quality Issues

My well water tastes funny? Tin can I become my well h2o tested?

If your well water tastes or smells funny, do non beverage your h2o until you have information technology tested. When testing, document the test and accept pictures.

You can examination your well yourself. In Michigan, your local health department may furnish free bottles with an instruction sail and where to send the sample. Information technology costs between $14.00 and $xvi.00 for to have samples tested. The instruction sheet explains the sampling protocol. Other states likely take like services.

Why is my lake light-green? White? Black? Brown?

Lime Lake is green in spring after being subject to discharges all winter of 2004. While in that location may be other reasons that water can plow different colors, CAFOs are often the culprit if they are located either upstream or up the hill from a lake or stream.

A greenish lake may be a sign of a silage leachate belch that has caused an algae bloom. The photo at right shows an example, at Lime Lake nearly Hudson, Michigan.
A white color may be from milk or milkhouse waste being discharged into water.
Black water may be a sign of a directly discharge of creature waste into the water.
Brown water may exist diluted beast waste material in the h2o.

Is the wetland on my property dead because of CAFO waste material?
Water testing is needed to verify if there is waste in the wetland. Though water quality standards are slightly different, E. coli and other fecal coliforms may still indicate the presence of fecal material in the wetland.

Is it safe to impact the water?

No. Never presume that water is safe near a CAFO or a country awarding site. Ever clothing clean rubber gloves. If bloodworms are present in the water, this tin be an indicator that you may go hepatitis if you are not wearing gloves. You could also become Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Pfisteria, or other illnesses from the fecal affair in the water. If you accept an open cut anywhere, you may want to have your companion take any water samples.

What do I exercise if I fall in the water?

Depending where and how y'all autumn in, clean up equally soon as possible.

Launder as much off before you lot get into your vehicle.
Go straight to where yous tin can shower.
Monitor your wellness.
If you become sick or were totally submerged, contact your physician.
If you become sick immediately, go to the emergency room.

Is a roadside ditch considered office of the surface water ?

You would have to contact the proper agency to brand this determination. If the roadside ditch connects to waters of the country it may be considered surface water, open drain, or county bleed.

What do I do if you run across expressionless fish downstream from the CAFO?

Document the expressionless fish past taking pictures; count how many and what kind if you can identify them. If there is a large number of expressionless fish, such as whatever number above eight or 10, contact the agency in charge in your state. In Michigan this would be the Department of Natural Resource. You should also notify the MDEQ.

CAFO Basics

How many locations/facilities make upwardly a CAFO?

Ane facility can exist a CAFO. 2 or more AFOs nether common ownership are considered to be a single AFO for the purposes of determining the number of animals at an operation, if the AFOs adjoin each other, or if they use a common area or organization for the disposal of wastes.

In Michigan, satellite barns and satellite lagoons would as well exist considered every bit function of a single AFO if they meet the definition nether the Rules of DEQ Wastewater Discharge Permits.

Where do CAFOs continue their animals?

All the animals are kept inside large cramped barns, they are not immune outside to graze.

Where does CAFO waste material come from?

The animals within the CAFO produce the majority of the waste matter. One 1400-pound cow produces approximately 17.7 gallons of feces and urine daily. CAFO waste material tin can also come from the production areas, such as lagoons or other waste storage structures, silage bunkers, the milkhouse, contaminated stormwater, manure piles, and compost.

What kinds of creature wastes or CAFO wastes are there?

There are many different contaminants and materials in CAFO wastes. Milkhouse waste, silage leachate, claret from birthing, antibiotics, chemicals, are just some of the animate being wastes. See What pollutants do CAFOs produce? and What'south in CAFO waste product?

What typically grows in the fields near CAFOs?

Alfalfa, soybeans, corn, wheat, rye, vegetables.

What types of water pollution can come up from CAFOs, and what wellness problems can ascend?

Surface and groundwater pollution can come from CAFOs. Groundwater contagion can cause E. coli poisoning and bluish baby syndrome. Surface h2o contamination can crusade illness from Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and Pfisteria. Meet How do CAFOs pollute h2o?

What kind of air pollution can come from CAFOs, and what health bug tin arise?

There are over 168 chemicals in and around manure. Some of the principal gases are methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. You may have problem breathing when the CAFO operators are spraying the fields with waste. If y'all experience ill from waste awarding, notify your local health department or physician immediately. Meet How exercise CAFOs pollute air?

CAFO Regulations & Government Subsidies

What is a CAFO permit and where do I find information technology?

Michigan CAFOs are required to have just one permit. Information technology is a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System , or NPDES permit, given to authorize discharges to waters of the state simply under particular circumstances. By signing the permit application, a CAFO possessor shows good intentions to practise the right thing. But the permit is only as practiced as the management at the CAFO. Permits do not guarantee compliance with the law. They do not protect public health. Remember, from a CAFO'south point of view, information technology is easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission!

You can detect NPDES permits at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Full-bodied Animal Feeding Operation website. Exist sure to encounter How to use for a NPDES permit. As well see the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency NPDES webpage and its Animal Feeding Operations department.

There are two categories of NPDES permits for CAFOs. Some CAFOs are required to utilise for an Individual NPDES Permit, that is written specifically for that one item CAFO. Others are allowed to apply for a Document of Coverage (COC) to be covered under the CAFO Full general Permit, where the terms of the let are applied to all the CAFOs with COCs. The Full general Permit language assumes all the CAFOs covered are alike, so they all have the aforementioned requirements. See the MDEQ CAFO website for more than data.

Do CAFOs become coin or subsidies from the government?

Most CAFOs receive subsidies in some form. Milk subsidies, road grants through local or state economic development agencies, EQIP , rural development grants, renewable energy grants, bonds, crop subsidies, etc.

The agriculture department says they follow more often than not accustomed agricultural direction practices (GAAMPS) and the "MOU". What is this?

See GAAMPS The Michigan Correct to Farm Act, P.A. 93, was enacted in 1981 to provide farmers with protection from nuisance lawsuits. This state statute authorizes the Michigan Commission of Agronomics to develop and adopt Generally Accustomed Agricultural and Direction Practices (GAAMPs) for farms and farm operations in Michigan. These voluntary practices are based on available technology and scientific research to promote sound ecology stewardship and help maintain a farmer's right to farm.

MOU is a Memorandum of Understanding between the Michigan Department of Agriculture and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality , entered into for the purpose of delineating the corresponding roles and responsibilities regarding land agency response actions to ecology and nuisance complaints about farm operations.

Get Assistance

What organizations can help you lot notice information about CAFOs?

There are many organizations that tin can help:

Sierra Club
Socially Responsible Agricultural Project
Food & H2o Sentry
Waterkeeper Alliance
Society for Responsible Agriculture
U.S. EPA (Visit country agencies for your country)

Also visit CAFO Help Contact Info for more information.

Source: https://www.sierraclub.org/michigan/why-are-cafos-bad

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