LWVBCC Local Positions

Background:

On October 20, 1999, the LWVBCC arrived at the following position at a local League consensus meeting, after a year of study involving speakers from the State Department of Environmental Quality and Michigan Department of Agriculture agencies, input from environmental experts, and discussion with area farmers and zoning oflicials.  The position was updated in May 2007.

Large-scale, inadequately regulated and inspected confinement livestock facilities pose a risk to area groundwater and surface water supplies.

• State level "generally accepted manure management practices" should be a set of preventative requirements, rather than voluntary guidelines.
• Facilities should be required to adhere to the federal Clean Water Act and state rules and receive EPA/NPDES "permits" before operation.
• Local and county governments should have the ability to set additional zoning restrictions to reflect particular local environmental and health needs.
• The state should reserve the right to impose a moratorium on any additional confinement facilities in all or part of the state when the environment and/or public welfare are jeopardized.
• MDEQ and MDA must collaborate on enforcement of CAFO permit requirements and other state and/or local regulation.
• Agency attention should be paid to the prevention of any contamination from manure retention systems, as well as manure handling and land application practices.
• At a minimum, testing of downstream contamination, soil percolation and saturation level profiles should be required at all facilities at various times each year.

• The public's right-to-know and the freedom of information about such facilities or any activity likely and/or known to pose environmental risk must not be abridged at any governmental level.
• MDEQ/MDA should be required to keep an updated listing of all CAFOs operating in the state, and make the list available to the public as well as violations and fines levied.

Key to abbreviations:

CAFOS: Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations
CNMP:  Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan
DNR: Department of Natural Resources
EPA: United States Environmental Protection Agency Region 5, includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ohio
FB: Farm Bureau
FOIA: Freedom of Information Act
GAAMPS: Generally Accepted Agricultural and Management Practices for Manure Management and Utilization includes 5 sets- manure management (GAMMPS) and utilization, nutrient utilization, pesticide utilization and pest control, care of farm animals, cranberries.
MDA: Michigan Department of Agriculture
MDEQ: Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
MSU: Michigan State University chairs committees that establish and review GAAMPs
NPDES: National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. Under the Clean Water Act, a facility that has more than 1,000 animal units- defined as 700 dairy cattle or 2,500 hogs- must have a NPDES permit if it discharges or may discharge.
RTF: Right To Farm Act- An act to provide for circumstances under which a farm shall not be found to be a public or private nuisance if the farm conforms to GAMMPS according to policy determined by the Michigan Commission of Agriculture.
WB:  Water Bureau

LWV CAFO Resource List