Source: Susan Kelly, MEATINGPLACE, 11/1/18


Poultry industry groups are commending the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its proposed changes to the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act.

The rule would clarify that farms would not be required to report air releases from animal manure.

“The removal of this unnecessary burden will ensure that emergency first responders’ important effort and time is not wasted on responding to non-emergencies. We look forward to working with local emergency planning commissions and emergency first responders to help them be familiar with how our poultry and egg facilities operate, so if there is a true emergency, their safety and efforts are enhanced,” the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, National Chicken Council, National Turkey Federation and United Egg Producers said in a joint statement.

The Fair Agricultural Reporting Method Act, passed by Congress in March, exempted farms from the requirement to submit emergency release reports to the Coast Guard’s National Response Center for air releases from manure under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.

“Congress made it clear in passing the Fair Agricultural Reporting Method Act (the FARM Act) earlier this year, which the poultry and egg industry strongly supported, that it did not intend to cover low-level air releases from the natural degradation of manure as an emergency notification under federal emergency response laws,” the poultry groups said.

The rule proposed by EPA sets out an approach to handling the issue under the nation’s emergency planning framework.

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