Lawsuit Challenges Factory Farm Secrecy

Environmental and Animal Protection Groups Sue to Obtain Access to Pollution Information

Today, a coalition of environmental and animal protection organizations filed suit against the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Filed in the New York Supreme Court in Albany, the suit challenges the agency's concealment of the terms of water pollution permits issued to factory farms.

The groups, including Delaware Riverkeeper Network, The Humane Society of the United States, the Delaware Riverkeeper, and American Littoral Society, are asking the court to order the agency to release the pollution records publicly.

At least two concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), or factory farms, are located in the Delaware River Watershed. One of them, Hudson Valley Foie Gras, has repeatedly violated its discharge permits, spilling manure and releasing bacteria and chlorine into the Middle Mongaup River.

The federal Clean Water Act and New York's Environmental Conservation Law require that factory farms obtain pollution permits and that information concerning these permits be made available to the public. The primary component of these pollution permits is a nutrient management plan, which specifies how factory farms handle manure and other wastes. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation refuses access to this information.

"The inability of citizens in New York State and across the country to gain access to these nutrient management plans severely undermines the role Congress intended citizens to play in the oversight and enforcement of water pollution permitting," states Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper and head of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. "In order for the public to know how waste is being handled at a CAFO, we need the nutrient management plan. Otherwise we can't effectively do our job of defending the river from pollution."

"Factory farms have huge impacts on animal welfare and the environment, which should not be kept secret from the public," said Sarah Uhlemann, a staff attorney with the Animal Protection Litigation of The HSUS. "These facilities not only confine thousands of animals at one facility, they also generate 500 million tons of manure each year—about 3 times more raw waste than humans generate."*

Facts:

• In New York and across the country, factory farms raise more than nine billion animals each year for meat, eggs, and dairy. The animals, who are often so intensively confined they can barely move, produce massive amounts of manure and have degraded water quality in lakes and streams across the country.
• Manure contains several pollutants, including fecal coliform that indicates the presence of disease-causing bacteria.
• Manure also contains a variety of nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, that can stimulate excessive plant growth, contributing to algal blooms and nuisance plants.

Timeline:

• July 26, 2007: Delaware Riverkeeper Network and the Humane Society of the United States file a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court, charging that the denial of nutrient management plan records is arbitrary and capricious and asking the court to order the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to release them publicly.
• February 28, 2005: The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit holds that nutrient management plans must be publicly available.

*U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit Regulation and Effluent Limitation Guidelines and Standards for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), 68 Fed. Reg. 7176 (Feb. 12, 2003)

-30-

The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization—backed by 10 million Americans, or one of every 30. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education, and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty—on the web at www.humanesociety.org.