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

Index

What is a CAFO?
What pollutants practise CAFOs produce?
Are there are different kinds of CAFOs?
What's in CAFO waste?
How do CAFOs pollute water?
How practice CAFOs pollute air?
How do CAFOs touch human health?
Are CAFOs sustainable?
Do CAFOs need taxpayer subsidies?
How are CAFOs regulated and permitted?
About CAFO Waste & Spreading
Water Quality Issues
CAFO Basics
CAFO Regulations & Government Subsidies
Get Assist

What is a CAFO?

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

The quantity of urine and feces from even the smallest CAFO is equivalent to the urine and feces produced by xvi,000 humans.
A CAFO tin can house anywhere from hundreds to millions of animals.
The animals in CAFOs are most often dairy cows, hogs, or chickens.
CAFO animals are confined at to the lowest degree 45 days or more than per year in an area without vegetation.
CAFOs include open up feedlots, as well as massive, windowless buildings where livestock are confined in boxes or stalls.
Other terms used to describe a CAFO: mega farm, animal manufactory, hog motels, poop factories, industrial farms.

(Also run across CAFO in the glossary and CAFO Nuts beneath.)

What pollutants do 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 arrive possible to produce massive quantities of milk, eggs, and meat, yet they resist investing in technologies and practices to properly care for the wastes that are past-products of this industry:

The amount of urine and carrion produced past the smallest CAFO is equivalent to the quantity of urine and feces produced by 16,000 humans.
CAFO waste matter is usually not treated to reduce disease-causing pathogens, nor to remove chemicals, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, or other pollutants.
Over 168 gases are emitted from CAFO waste matter, including hazardous chemicals such equally ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and methane.
Airborne particulate matter is found near CAFOs and can conduct disease-causing bacteria, fungus, or other pathogens.
Animals oftentimes die in CAFOs. Their carcasses, oft in big numbers, must be dealt with.
Infestations of flies, rats, and other vermin are commonplace around CAFOs and therefore effectually CAFO neighbors.

Oft yous'll hear owners of CAFOs argue that the wastes produced by the livestock provide nutrients that aid them beginning the utilise of synthetic fertilizers. The sheer amount of wastes produced, however, ofttimes overwhelms the ability of the land and crops to blot CAFO wastes.

Are in that location different kinds of CAFOs?

Yes.

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

Dairy and hog CAFOs often use clean water to wash beast wastes and contaminants from the buildings into waste-storage structures or lagoons.
Poultry CAFOs use dry out-waste systems. The waste falls from animal cages to the floor, where information technology is scraped out of the building periodically or nerveless on conveyer belts and moved to composting or storage sites.

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

What's in CAFO waste material?

In add-on to constitute nutrients such as 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 water contaminated by all of the above.

CAFO waste is often stored untreated in gigantic anaerobic waste storage structures or pits for up to six months. Afterwards storage, it is spread on farm fields for disposal. This is where CAFO wastes often enters surface h2o.
Lime Lake is shown bright green with an algae bloom, downstream from drainn shown in photo above.
Nutrients in this CAFO waste can crusade brilliant-light-green algae blooms in ditches, streams, and lakes. As these surface-water algae blooms die off, the oxygen in the water is depleted. What does this do? Information technology tin can lead to fish kills. Additionally, drinking-water plants must remove these nutrients earlier water is fit for consumption.

Pathogens such as East.coli leaner, cryptosporidium, and salmonella, all of which can cause sickness or death in humans and animals, may be nowadays in CAFO wastes.

How practise CAFOs pollute water?

Water pollution is possible at nigh any point in a CAFO's operation.

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

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It may take dozens of trips per day by semis or tanker trucks to dispose of CAFO waste matter. These trucks haul the wastes from the production surface area waste matter-storage structures to fields that are often many miles away.

Ane of the chief sources of CAFO-caused pollution in Michigan comes from discharges of manure and other wastes through the soil into field drainage tiles , which bear the wastes directly into canton drains and streams.

When CAFO wastes are applied to subcontract fields, water pollution can exist acquired by overapplication of wastes, directly runoff into surface waters, or by traveling through the ground- or catch basins into field tiles or drainage ditches that discharge directly into surface waters. Tests have shown that waste applied to the surface of a field tin take a lilliputian as 45 minutes to reach the field tiles three to iv feet below the surface.

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

Groundwater pollution can be caused by leaking waste storage structures, and improper or over-application of wastes on fields. The use of injection systems for shooting wastes direct into the soil is encouraged every bit a method to keep olfactory property from CAFO land application downwardly, however there is meaning concern that this could but 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 merely delay the pollution and don't keep pollution from flowing to groundwater. They certainly don't remove pathogens. Groundwater is difficult to monitor, and so the extent and source of contamination are often harder to pinpoint than surface water contamination.

How practice CAFOs pollute air?

Air pollution from CAFOs tin come through numerous methods. Some tin crusade bad odors, but others emit several dangerous gases as manure and biological materials break downwards in the absenteeism 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 can crusade neurological issues, including farthermost anger, depression, and disease. The image at right shows a family unit raising the American flag in their yard, while a hydrogen sulfide meter shows concentrations of the contaminant at ii parts per meg in Oct 2008. The source CAFO can be seen beyond the pine tree. Unfortunately, this home is also surrounded on three sides by fields ofttimes used by 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 always terminate operating. Unremarkably the fans simply accident the contaminated air to the outside where it tin pollute the whole customs. Poultry operations blow ammonia and particulate affair, including feathers and chicken carrion out of the buildings.

Waste storage structures

Hog operations often build the waste storage structure immediately beneath the area where the animals are kept, with slats in the floors to allow wastes to simply drop into the pit.

Handling of the wastes

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

Techniques used in country application

For example, in one case or twice each twelvemonth many liquid waste 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 even worse air pollution.

How do CAFOs impact homo health?

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

Are CAFOs sustainable?

No.

CAFOs are resource-intensive and unsustainable.
CAFOs animal-raising practices are neither economically viable or sustainable.
CAFOs use 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 apply millions of gallons of Michigan's clean fresh groundwater every day to dilute waste and to launder manure from milking parlors and CAFO barns.

Do CAFOs need taxpayer subsidies?

Yes.

CAFOs can't survive without taxpayer subsidies. CAFOs receive many subsidies, such as milk toll back up guarantees, federal EQIP coin through the Farm Bill , Development Right Agreements, tax abatements, grants, bonds, even economical evolution 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 fail financially. Sierra Club is a member of the Less=More coalition that aims to stop subsidies to polluting manufacturing plant farms to level the playing field for sustainable livestock farmers. Less back up for polluting manufacturing plant farms means a more sustainable Michigan. Learn more at MoreforMichigan.org.

How are CAFOs regulated and permitted?

Federal laws institute minimum standards for the regulation of whatsoever activity that causes air pollution or h2o pollution. However, through aggressive lobbying past 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), as well known as Championship III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) , the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act - otherwise known as EPCRA (pronounced EP-kra) - was enacted by Congress as the national legislation on community safety. This law is designed to help local communities protect public health, safety, and the environment from chemic hazards. CAFOs are required to study emissions of some pollutants, almost notably ammonia. This requirement led to disclosure that the largest emitter of ammonia in the country is a dairy CAFO in Oregon.

The federal Clean Water Act does provide some regulation of CAFOs, although interpretations of the extent of those requirements are existence litigated. State laws must be at least as restrictive as the federal law, simply in Michigan and some other states information technology has required citizens to bring challenges to country's delegation nether the Clean Water Deed 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 club to go on operations. Several states (including Michigan) now crave NPDES permits for all CAFOs, including new ones.

Information technology is of import to review the regulations in your state in order to understand what is allowed and not immune. ( EPA links to state plan websites. )

State and federal agronomical agencies ofttimes play a role in establishing voluntary standards that CAFOs and other livestock operations are expected to abide by. In some instances, the agricultural agencies will act as the gatekeeper for securing whatever enforcement actions by the state, particularly in the area of air pollution. In Michigan, for case, the Department of Agriculture is given the responsibility for investigating air pollution complaints from CAFOs, although they have no enforcement authority. Except in an emergency, the agronomics manager must brand a referral to the Department of Environmental Quality before whatever activeness tin can exist taken past the environmental agency regarding those complaints.

CAFO Waste matter & Spreading

Is it illegal to spread CAFO manure on the ground?

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

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 also loaded with the plant nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, which can cause algae blooms if released to surface h2o, and pathogens such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) , and other fecal coliforms.

Manure may as well contain:

growth hormones used to increase the production of milk in the cows
antibiotics that go on the animals from getting ill
chemicals used to clean the milkhouse equipment or used equally additives to lagoons
milkhouse wastes discharged on the flooring while milking
birthing fluids from cows calving
blood from birthing
silage leachate from the chopped corn in bunkers
production expanse waste material from the equipment existence washed or used
contaminated stormwater stormwater is considered clean unless it's allowed 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 co-ordinate to a 2001 USEPA Report (Appendix A, page 235-244).

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

Methane digesters do not :

reduce nitrogen or phosphorus (in almost schemes)
reduce liquid in the manure
improve the waste product every bit a fertilizer (it is still distributed on fields)
save taxpayers money

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

In short, no. And, as you read the bulleted listing below, recall that a Michigan CAFO can take a compost pile within 200 anxiety of its neighbor.

In addition to manure and other materials, CAFO compost piles may have up to 20,000 pounds of expressionless animals in one pile (and if just 1 animal had mad cow disease and this pile is spread on the land, the prions could enter the nutrient or milk supply). For more data on prions, meet the Heart for Disease Control Prion Diseases webpage.
CAFO compost piles depict vermin, rats, flies, coyotes, and vultures.
Most CAFO compost sites do non have runoff containment structures, and the nutrient-rich liquids can cause algae blooms if they attain surface waters.
the odors emitted can become very strong if the composting is non done correctly.

What is a CAFO discharge?

Discharge means any straight or indirect release of any waste matter, waste effluent, wastewater, pollutant, or any combination thereof into any of the waters of the state or upon the ground. View theDEQ Wastewater Discharge Permit Rules.

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

Are CAFO operators allowed to spread animal waste on snow?

spreading manure on snow with ponding The real answer should be "no, not under any circumstance."

Instead the respond to this question is "peradventure". How would y'all find out?

Offset notice out if the CAFO has any restrictions in its NPDES permit or consent order -- if they have one--for spreading waste on snow.
Next acquire which fields in each CAFO's Comprehensive Food Direction Plan (CNMP) are allowed to take wintertime application on them, and whether it can exist solids or liquids.
So detect out the Manure Application Hazard Index (MARI) for each field. This research grant proposal from the Michigan Land University to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) describes employ of the Manure Application Chance Index for evaluating fields for wintertime manure land application.

Whether or not a CAFO is allowed to spread waste on snow 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 basis. Many CAFOs will spread waste matter on snow just to go rid of it and and then promise they don't get caught. The problem is that when the snow melts, the manure will run off into the nearest ditch or stream, because frozen footing cannot blot water. Oft the manure on the snowfall will even cause the snow and water ice to melt. If you lot observe CAFO operators spreading waste on snowfall or frozen ground, and you lot know their CNMP and NPDES permit doesn't allow them to, you should contact the MDEQ district office , or call the Pollution Emergency Alert Organization (PEAS).

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

This is a grey-area question. Past dumping manure piles, a CAFO creates an off-site production surface area of waste. This off-site production area cannot discharge to waters of the country. See page half-dozen of the DEQ Wastewater Belch Permit Rules for the official definition of "product area".

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

Are CAFO Operators allowed to spread waste material before precipitation or rainfall?

This tin also be a cloudy area. See Instructions for Determining Precipitation Forecasts ( pages 55-56 of this CAFO permit guide) to see how weather forecasts are applicable to CAFOs. You may use the instructions along with the CAFO's CNMP to determine if they are spreading waste material in violation of their NPDES permit.

The photo at right, taken in Lenawee County simply before a predicted rainfall, shows manure waste material application on a fairly steep slope.

Is there a fourth dimension of year when CAFOs tin't spread wastes?

Non necessarily, this may be dissimilar for each CAFO. Each CAFO'due south NPDES allow guides what can and cannot exist done.

Are there fields CAFOs can never spread waste on?

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

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

This refers to a "setback", and the required setback information would exist constitute in the CAFO'due south NPDES let.

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

No. Still, 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 amount, it is necessary to contact the regime agency that has jurisdiction over roads.

CAFOs' Impacts on Humans

Exercise I need to worry nearly a CAFO going in nigh my business firm?

Yes. You need to organize and educate your neighbors equally before long equally possible. See How to Stop Approving of a New CAFO.

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

Property values will drop the closer in proximity to a CAFO that you lot live. Data tin be constitute from realtor.com and other sources.

How does the CAFO waste product end up on my property?

CAFO waste can be sprayed, irrigated, diddled by the wind, 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 blow out bedding or other contaminated materials.

Are at that place homo health furnishings from exposure to CAFO manure?

Yes. Many people have go ill living near and working at CAFOs. Some people develop animate problems, coughs, headaches, hydrogen sulfide poisoning, and ammonia poisoning. Hither are some manufactures from Ecology Health Perspectives :

air pollution

Air pollution from industrial swine operations and claret pressure of neighboring residents
Land awarding of treated sewage sludge: community health and ecology 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 (Watch the Nascency of a Superbug)

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

Showtime, this activity may not be illegal. But there are provisions the state applicator must follow to protect your home and property. Then beginning, to be safe - get your children indoors, close your windows, and take down your laundry. And then beginning documenting your observations, in case the action is causing a problem.

Take fourth dimension-stamped pictures of the field where waste product is being spread;
Take time-stamped pictures of the application equipment;
Go the conditions forecast or study from the National Weather Service and salve the report on your figurer, or print it. Encounter Instructions for Determining Precipitation Forecasts ( pages 55-56 of this CAFO permit guide) to encounter how weather forecasts apply to timing of CAFO activities. You may use the instructions along with the CAFO'south CNMP to make up one's mind if they are spreading waste in violation of their NPDES allow.
Get your notebook, notation the date and time and all your observations: if the CAFO is spreading waste over any field tiles , adjacent to canton drains , next to whatsoever open up waterways, almost a tile riser , over a catch basin , near a dike , or near your water well. Draw sketches, bespeak which way is due north, roads, buildings, homes.

Additionally, document:

how far the application is from your holding;
if y'all or your family unit are feeling sick, which may indicate emissions of a toxic gas. (An odor will not make you ill. An emission volition give y'all a headache, nausea, burning sinuses, sore throat.)
if you smell odor, and what it smells similar (for example, it could smell like manure, or like soured milk, or even like diesel.)

How exercise I document the activities I discover about the CAFO?

In a nutshell, yous will take pictures, have water samples, and fifty-fifty smell the h2o at your own risk (smell it for manure or some other wrong smell). Conduct a notebook and keep data, such equally a journal or a checklist. Have someone else verify your information, if at all possible.

Tin can I take photographs of a CAFO?

Yes. Pictures ideally should testify the time, date, and location of what is happening. This is especially important if rainfall is predicted and a facility is land-applying waste anyhow, maybe even in violation of its NPDES permit or consent gild. (encounter MDEQ's CAFO website for more than information on this situation).

Without trespassing onto private property, and only working from the route-right-of-way, or from the property of a landowner who gave you permission, take photos of:

operations to document their practices. These may show illegal practices such as pumping into a waterway or county bleed or into a grab bowl.
buildings to prove number of buildings and location. Pictures here may also show dead animals.
activities to evidence country application of waste, types of hauling equipment. Document excavation or tiling activities , also.
people but if they are harassing or stalking yous, such equally following yous in your vehicle or blocking your path. If someone is harassing yous, you should also call the police or 911. Photos of people may also exist taken if they are doing something you believe is illegal that would exist a violation of the CAFO's NPDES water discharge let or consent order , if the CAFO has one.

How tin can I protect myself while monitoring?

Notify the constabulary or local sheriff that you and a companion will be monitoring water nigh CAFOs, as explained below.
Bring someone with you if at all possible.
Calibrate any equipment ahead of time to save time while at the monitoring location.
Brand certain all your equipment is turned on ahead of fourth dimension and ready to be used.
Use 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 (Practise) meter to measure DO and water temperature, grabbing a h2o sample, using a meter to mensurate the pH, using the ammonia strips, taking pictures, and so on.

Send notice to the local sheriff or state police of: which CAFOs yous will exist monitoring and where, what type and color of vehicle you'll be in, plus the license plate number. Tell them your and other monitors' names, addresses, and phone numbers, and cell phone numbers. Tell them clearly what you are doing and allow them know you are monitoring the water or air. This mode, if someone complains well-nigh your activities, the police volition know where to find you, and tin call you.

You must never trespass. Check for route correct-of-way distances. Realize that land highways are different than local roads. A CAFO operator may file charges against you lot if you are trespassing on their property. If you plan to access a stream away from the route, y'all must go permission from the landowner.

What should I exercise if I see:

a broken lagoon or waste storage pit
waste running out of a pipe, a tube, a truck, an irrigator
ponding or pooling of waste on fields
dead animals
syringes and other related equipment dumped
excavation, tiling or dumping at dark
earth-moving equipment at work

If y'all see any of these practices or waste products at a CAFO, you should document it with photos that record the time and date. If you lot believe a violation has occurred, contact the advisable agency with your concerns.

Tin can the CAFO go after me if I report them?

Yeah. A CAFO can get afterwards you if you report them. Some agencies have bearding tips, and you lot can written report them that way. Remember that documentation is extremely of import, and so exist diligent in your investigation before y'all study a violation. Always document your investigation, and always be credible.

Water Quality Issues

My well water tastes funny? Can I get my well water tested?

If your well water tastes or smells funny, practise not drink your water until you have it tested. When testing, document the test and take pictures.

You tin test your well yourself. In Michigan, your local health department may replenish free bottles with an teaching canvas and where to send the sample. It costs betwixt $14.00 and $16.00 for to accept samples tested. The education sheet explains the sampling protocol. Other states likely accept similar services.

Why is my lake greenish? White? Black? Brown?

Lime Lake is green in spring after being subject to discharges all winter of 2004. While there may be other reasons that h2o can turn different colors, CAFOs are ofttimes the culprit if they are located either upstream or upwards the hill from a lake or stream.

A green lake may be a sign of a silage leachate discharge that has caused an algae bloom. The photograph at right shows an example, at Lime Lake well-nigh Hudson, Michigan.
A white colour may be from milk or milkhouse waste beingness discharged into water.
Black water may exist a sign of a directly discharge of animal waste product into the water.
Brown water may be diluted animal waste matter in the water.

Is the wetland on my holding expressionless because of CAFO waste?
H2o testing is needed to verify if there is waste product in the wetland. Though water quality standards are slightly different, E. coli and other fecal coliforms may withal point the presence of fecal material in the wetland.

Is it safe to affect the water?

No. Never presume that water is safety near a CAFO or a land awarding site. E'er vesture clean safety gloves. If bloodworms are present in the water, this can exist an indicator that you may become hepatitis if you are not wearing gloves. Yous could as well get Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Pfisteria, or other illnesses from the fecal matter in the water. If you lot have an open cut anywhere, you lot may want to take your companion take any water samples.

What exercise I do if I fall in the water?

Depending where and how you fall in, clean upwardly as soon as possible.

Wash as much off before yous get into your vehicle.
Go direct to where you can shower.
Monitor your health.
If you become ill or were totally submerged, contact your physician.
If yous get sick immediately, get to the emergency room.

Is a roadside ditch considered part of the surface h2o ?

You would accept to contact the proper agency to make this determination. If the roadside ditch connects to waters of the state it may exist considered surface h2o, open up drain, or county bleed.

What exercise I do if you lot see dead fish downstream from the CAFO?

Document the dead fish by taking pictures; count how many and what kind if you can identify them. If there is a large number of expressionless fish, such every bit any number in a higher place 8 or 10, contact the agency in charge in your state. In Michigan this would exist the Section of Natural Resource. Yous should also notify the MDEQ.

CAFO Basics

How many locations/facilities brand upwardly a CAFO?

1 facility can be a CAFO. Two or more than 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 system for the disposal of wastes.

In Michigan, satellite barns and satellite lagoons would also exist considered as office of a unmarried AFO if they meet the definition under the Rules of DEQ Wastewater Discharge Permits.

Where do CAFOs go along their animals?

All the animals are kept inside large cramped barns, they are not allowed exterior to graze.

Where does CAFO waste material come from?

The animals within the CAFO produce the majority of the waste matter. 1 1400-pound moo-cow produces approximately 17.7 gallons of feces and urine daily. CAFO waste can as well come from the product areas, such equally lagoons or other waste material storage structures, silage bunkers, the milkhouse, contaminated stormwater, manure piles, and compost.

What kinds of animate being wastes or CAFO wastes are there?

There are many dissimilar contaminants and materials in CAFO wastes. Milkhouse waste, silage leachate, blood from birthing, antibiotics, chemicals, are simply some of the creature wastes. See What pollutants do CAFOs produce? and What'south in CAFO waste material?

What typically grows in the fields near CAFOs?

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

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

Surface and groundwater pollution can come up from CAFOs. Groundwater contagion can cause E. coli poisoning and blue infant syndrome. Surface water contagion tin cause illness from Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and Pfisteria. See How do CAFOs pollute water?

What kind of air pollution tin come from CAFOs, and what wellness problems can arise?

There are over 168 chemicals in and around manure. Some of the main gases are methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. You may have trouble animate when the CAFO operators are spraying the fields with waste product. If you feel ill from waste material awarding, notify your local wellness department or dr. immediately. Run into How exercise CAFOs pollute air?

CAFO Regulations & Government Subsidies

What is a CAFO permit and where do I find it?

Michigan CAFOs are required to have simply one let. It is a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System , or NPDES let, given to qualify discharges to waters of the land only under particular circumstances. By signing the permit awarding, a CAFO owner shows good intentions to do the right matter. Only the permit is only as expert as the management at the CAFO. Permits practice non guarantee compliance with the law. They do non protect public health. Recollect, from a CAFO's signal of view, it is easier to enquire forgiveness than to ask permission!

You can detect NPDES permits at the Michigan Section of Environmental Quality Concentrated Animal Feeding Functioning website. Be sure to run into How to apply for a NPDES let. Also see the U.S. Environmental Protection Bureau NPDES webpage and its Creature Feeding Operations section.

There are two categories of NPDES permits for CAFOs. Some CAFOs are required to employ for an Individual NPDES Allow, that is written specifically for that 1 particular CAFO. Others are allowed to use for a Certificate of Coverage (COC) to be covered under the CAFO Full general Permit, where the terms of the permit are applied to all the CAFOs with COCs. The General Allow language assumes all the CAFOs covered are alike, so they all accept the same requirements. See the MDEQ CAFO website for more data.

Do CAFOs get money or subsidies from the government?

Well-nigh CAFOs receive subsidies in some form. Milk subsidies, road grants through local or state economical development agencies, EQIP , rural development grants, renewable free energy grants, bonds, crop subsidies, etc.

The agronomics department says they follow mostly accepted agricultural management practices (GAAMPS) and the "MOU". What is this?

See GAAMPS The Michigan Right to Subcontract 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 By and large Accepted Agricultural and Management Practices (GAAMPs) for farms and farm operations in Michigan. These voluntary practices are based on available engineering science and scientific research to promote sound environmental stewardship and help maintain a farmer's right to farm.

MOU is a Memorandum of Agreement 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 subcontract operations.

Get Help

What organizations can help you detect information about CAFOs?

There are many organizations that can help:

Sierra Club
Socially Responsible Agronomical Project
Food & Water Watch
Waterkeeper Brotherhood
Guild for Responsible Agriculture
U.S. EPA (Visit state agencies for your land)

Likewise visit CAFO Help Contact Info for more information.

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

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