EPA Drops Another Water Pollution Order

By CnAgri Print

The Environmental Protection Agency has dropped a water pollution order and fines for a chicken farmer in West Virginia, while the fate of the lawsuit is unclear. The EPA has withdrawn a water-pollution order against a West Virginia chicken farmer who countered the threat of hefty fines by suing the agency over new rules aimed at cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay watershed, reports The Republic.

Charleston attorney David Yaussy said that the EPA recently withdrew its order against his client, Eight Is Enough operator Lois Alt, after reviewing what he called minor changes to her Hardy County operation. Among other things, he said, they are now moving manure by conveyor instead of hand-loading it out.

"But the changes were not all that significant in that the Alts had already been running a very good, very clean operation," he said.

Alt and her husband are thrilled they no longer face possible fines of $37,500 a day for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act, Yaussy said, but it is unclear what will happen to their lawsuit in District Court.

EPA officials provided a copy of the letter dated December 13 to Alt but did not say whether they would now move to dismiss the case.

Yaussy, however, told The Republic the issues underlying Alts' situation still need to be addressed in court because they could potentially affect chicken farmers nationwide, requiring them to seek discharge permits under the Clean Water Act that they do not all currently need.

District Judge John Preston Bailey recently allowed several environmental groups to join the litigation.

Last fall, the EPA determined that dust, feathers and fine particles of dander and manure from Alt's poultry house ventilation fans could land on the ground, come into contact with storm water and flow into ditches, eventually reaching Chesapeake Bay tributaries.