Are Agricultural Operations Where Animals Are Kept And Raised In Confined Siuations

Index

What is a CAFO?
What pollutants do CAFOs produce?
Are at that place are dissimilar kinds of CAFOs?
What'south in CAFO waste material?
How do CAFOs pollute water?
How do CAFOs pollute air?
How exercise CAFOs impact human health?
Are CAFOs sustainable?
Do CAFOs demand taxpayer subsidies?
How are CAFOs regulated and permitted?
About CAFO Waste & Spreading
Water Quality Issues
CAFO Basics
CAFO Regulations & Regime Subsidies
Get Help

What is a CAFO?

A CAFO, or Full-bodied Animal Feeding Functioning , 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 16,000 humans.
A CAFO can house anywhere from hundreds to millions of animals.
The animals in CAFOs are about oft 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 feedlots, as well every bit massive, windowless buildings where livestock are confined in boxes or stalls.
Other terms used to depict a CAFO: mega subcontract, beast manufacturing plant, hog motels, poop factories, industrial farms.

(Also see CAFO in the glossary and CAFO Basics beneath.)

What pollutants practise CAFOs produce?

CAFOs produce huge amounts of fauna 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 brand it possible to produce massive quantities of milk, eggs, and meat, yet they resist investing in technologies and practices to properly treat the wastes that are by-products of this industry:

The amount of urine and carrion produced by the smallest CAFO is equivalent to the quantity of urine and carrion produced by 16,000 humans.
CAFO waste is usually non treated to reduce disease-causing pathogens, nor to remove chemicals, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, or other pollutants.
Over 168 gases are emitted from CAFO waste, including hazardous chemicals such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and methane.
Airborne particulate matter is constitute near CAFOs and can acquit disease-causing bacteria, fungus, or other pathogens.
Animals oftentimes dice in CAFOs. Their carcasses, often in large numbers, must be dealt with.
Infestations of flies, rats, and other vermin are commonplace around CAFOs and therefore around CAFO neighbors.

Ofttimes you'll hear owners of CAFOs argue that the wastes produced past the livestock provide nutrients that help them commencement the employ of constructed fertilizers. The sheer amount of wastes produced, notwithstanding, often overwhelms the ability of the land and crops to absorb CAFO wastes.

Are there different kinds of CAFOs?

Yep.

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

Dairy and hog CAFOs often use make clean water to wash animal wastes and contaminants from the buildings into waste matter-storage structures or lagoons.
Poultry CAFOs use dry-waste systems. The waste matter falls from animal cages to the floor, where it 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. Here the manure waste matter accumulates on the ground, often washing off into nearby ditches and streams.

What'due south in CAFO waste?

In addition to plant nutrients such equally phosphorus and nitrogen, CAFO waste 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 upward to 6 months. After storage, information technology is spread on farm fields for disposal. This is where CAFO wastes oft enters surface water.
Lime Lake is shown bright green with an algae bloom, downstream from drainn shown in photo above.
Nutrients in this CAFO waste matter can cause brilliant-dark-green algae blooms in ditches, streams, and lakes. Equally these surface-water algae blooms die off, the oxygen in the water is depleted. What does this do? It tin atomic number 82 to fish kills. Additionally, drinking-water plants must remove these nutrients before water is fit for consumption.

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

How do CAFOs pollute h2o?

H2o pollution is possible at virtually any betoken in a CAFO'southward operation.

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

ECCSCM

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

I of the main sources of CAFO-caused pollution in Michigan comes from discharges of manure and other wastes through the soil into field drainage tiles , which comport the wastes directly into county drains and streams.

When CAFO wastes are applied to farm fields, h2o pollution can be acquired by overapplication of wastes, straight runoff into surface waters, or past 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 can take a piddling as 45 minutes to achieve the field tiles three to four feet below the surface.

Manure wastes are also sprayed from travel irrigators , trucks, tractors, or draglined. This waste product tin period straight into surface waters due to current of air, by direct discharge from running over a bleed or waterway, or through malfunctions of the equipment.

Groundwater pollution can exist caused by leaking waste storage structures, and improper or over-awarding of wastes on fields. The use of injection systems for shooting wastes direct into the soil is encouraged equally a method to keep odor from CAFO land application down, however there is significant concern that this could simply 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 only filibuster the pollution and don't keep pollution from flowing to groundwater. They certainly don't remove pathogens. Groundwater is hard to monitor, so the extent and source of contagion are often harder to pinpoint than surface h2o contamination.

How practice CAFOs pollute air?

Air pollution from CAFOs tin come up through numerous methods. Some can cause bad odors, but others emit several dangerous gases every bit manure and biological materials break down 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 tin cause neurological bug, including extreme anger, depression, and illness. The image at right shows a family raising the American flag in their g, while a hydrogen sulfide meter shows concentrations of the contaminant at 2 parts per million in Oct 2008. The source CAFO tin can be seen beyond the pino tree. Unfortunately, this home is likewise surrounded on 3 sides by fields often 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 within the buildings is potentially deadly to the animals and humans inside if the fans e'er end operating. Normally the fans only blow the contaminated air to the exterior where information technology can pollute the whole community. Poultry operations blow ammonia and particulate matter, including feathers and chicken feces out of the buildings.

Waste material storage structures

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

Handling of the wastes

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

Techniques used in country application

For example, one time or twice each twelvemonth many liquid waste CAFO systems will scrape the solids out of the lesser of the waste storage structures and spread these thick, fermented wastes onto farm fields, causing even worse air pollution.

How do CAFOs touch human health?

CAFOs may cause health effects 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 tin crusade irreversible brain impairment, dizziness, headache, nausea, sore throats, sinusitis, burning optics, and other illnesses.
When phosphorus and nitrogen are over-applied to fields, the nutrients tin motility through the soil into field tiles to surface water, or through soil to groundwater and drinking water.
Elevated levels of nitrates in drinking water can cause "bluish baby syndrome", a potentially fatal blood disorder.

Are CAFOs sustainable?

No.

CAFOs are resource-intensive and unsustainable.
CAFOs brute-raising practices are neither economically viable or sustainable.
CAFOs employ 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 use millions of gallons of Michigan'southward clean fresh groundwater every twenty-four hour period to dilute waste product and to wash manure from milking parlors and CAFO barns.

Exercise CAFOs need taxpayer subsidies?

Aye.

CAFOs can't survive without taxpayer subsidies. CAFOs receive many subsidies, such as milk price support guarantees, federal EQIP money through the Farm Pecker , Development Right Agreements, tax abatements, grants, bonds, even economic development funds for roads.

These taxpayer supports non just encourage the growth of this industry, they undercut the power of traditional livestock operations to compete with CAFOs. Without the subsidies, CAFOs would fail financially. Sierra Club is a fellow member of the Less=More than coalition that aims to end subsidies to polluting mill farms to level the playing field for sustainable livestock farmers. Less support for polluting mill farms ways a more sustainable Michigan. Learn more than at MoreforMichigan.org.

How are CAFOs regulated and permitted?

Federal laws establish 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.South. Environmental Protection Bureau provides no regulation of air pollution issues from CAFOs. Under the Right-to-Know provisions of CERCLA 42 U.s.C. §11001 et seq. (1986), also known as Title 3 of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Human activity (SARA) , the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Deed - otherwise known every bit EPCRA (pronounced EP-kra) - was enacted by Congress as the national legislation on community safety. This police force is designed to assist local communities protect public health, safety, and the surroundings from chemical hazards. CAFOs are required to study emissions of some pollutants, nigh notably ammonia. This requirement led to disclosure that the largest emitter of ammonia in the land 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 beingness litigated. Land laws must exist at to the lowest degree equally restrictive as the federal police, but in Michigan and some other states it has required citizens to bring challenges to country's delegation nether the Make clean H2o Human activity 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 Belch Emptying System (NPDES) let in order to continue operations. Several states (including Michigan) now crave NPDES permits for all CAFOs, including new ones.

It is of import to review the regulations in your land in order to sympathize what is immune and not allowed. ( EPA links to state plan websites. )

State and federal agricultural agencies often 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 human activity as the gatekeeper for securing whatsoever enforcement actions past the state, especially in the area of air pollution. In Michigan, for example, the Department of Agriculture is given the responsibleness for investigating air pollution complaints from CAFOs, although they accept no enforcement authority. Except in an emergency, the agriculture director must brand a referral to the Section of Ecology Quality earlier any action can be taken by the environmental agency regarding those complaints.

CAFO Waste material & Spreading

Is it illegal to spread CAFO manure on the ground?

No, it is not illegal to spread CAFO manure waste product on the ground. While this website describes many different situations in which a CAFO may be spreading their waste on land, and many perhaps harmful effects of that activeness, it is non of itself illegal. It is illegal if a CAFO spreads waste in such a manner that information technology moves off the state and into waters of the state, and this "discharge" causes or contributes to a violation of Michigan's h2o 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 besides loaded with the plant nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, which tin can cause algae blooms if released to surface water, and pathogens such equally Escherichia coli (Due east. coli) , and other fecal coliforms.

Manure may also contain:

growth hormones used to increase the product of milk in the cows
antibiotics that go on the animals from getting sick
chemicals used to clean the milkhouse equipment or used every bit additives to lagoons
milkhouse wastes discharged on the floor while milking
birthing fluids from cows calving
blood from birthing
silage leachate from the chopped corn in bunkers
production expanse waste from the equipment being done or used
contaminated stormwater stormwater is considered clean unless it's immune 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 according to a 2001 USEPA Study (Appendix A, page 235-244).

Can a methane digester solve the CAFO's waste problem?
Not actually. This is like capturing a fart in a jar. It may help reduce some odors, just it has astringent limits.

Methane digesters do non :

reduce nitrogen or phosphorus (in most schemes)
reduce liquid in the manure
better the waste as a fertilizer (information technology is all the same distributed on fields)
save taxpayers money

Can composting the manure solve the CAFO'south waste problem?

In brusque, no. And, as you read the bulleted list below, call up that a Michigan CAFO can have a compost pile within 200 feet of its neighbor.

In improver to manure and other materials, CAFO compost piles may have up to 20,000 pounds of dead animals in one pile (and if merely ane fauna had mad cow disease and this pile is spread on the country, the prions could enter the nutrient or milk supply). For more information on prions, come across the Centre for Disease Command Prion Diseases webpage.
CAFO compost piles draw vermin, rats, flies, coyotes, and vultures.
Most CAFO compost sites do not take runoff containment structures, and the food-rich liquids tin cause algae blooms if they reach surface waters.
the odors emitted tin can become very stiff if the composting is not washed correctly.

What is a CAFO discharge?

Discharge means any direct or indirect release of whatsoever waste, waste effluent, wastewater, pollutant, or whatever combination thereof into any of the waters of the state or upon the basis. View theDEQ Wastewater Discharge Permit Rules.

A CAFO discharge may be called many things: a spill, blow, terrorist assail, or blamed on birds, red trees, deer, horses, geese, raccoons, or the neighbors. But rarely is it called what it is: a mess from the CAFO with 3,500 cows.
A CAFO discharge tin be chocolate-brown and smell like fauna waste; it can be white and smell similar bad milk; it can be green and sour which may be leachate from the silage (chopped corn that they feed to cows).
A CAFO discharge may too be diluted with stormwater. In this case, the CAFO maxim is "dilution is the solution to pollution."

Are CAFO operators allowed to spread animate being waste on snow?

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

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

Kickoff find out if the CAFO has any restrictions in its NPDES permit or consent order -- if they have one--for spreading waste on snowfall.
Side by side learn which fields in each CAFO'southward Comprehensive Nutrient Management Program (CNMP) are allowed to have wintertime application on them, and whether information technology can be solids or liquids.
And then discover out the Manure Application Risk Alphabetize (MARI) for each field. This research grant proposal from the Michigan Country University to the U.Southward. Geological Survey (USGS) describes use of the Manure Application Take chances Index for evaluating fields for winter manure land application.

Whether or non 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 gild from the state with specifics for winter application. This may be determined on a field by field basis. Many CAFOs will spread waste on snow just to get rid of it and and so hope they don't become caught. The problem is that when the snowfall melts, the manure will run off into the nearest ditch or stream, because frozen ground cannot absorb h2o. Often the manure on the snow volition even crusade the snowfall and ice to melt. If you discover CAFO operators spreading waste on snow or frozen ground, and you know their CNMP and NPDES permit doesn't allow them to, you should contact the MDEQ district office , or phone call the Pollution Emergency Alert System (PEAS).

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

This is a greyness-area question. By dumping manure piles, a CAFO creates an off-site product area of waste. This off-site production area cannot belch to waters of the land. Run across page 6 of the DEQ Wastewater Belch Allow Rules for the official definition of "production area".

How long can manure exist piled at a site? The Comprehensive Food Management Programme may incorporate data on this practice.
A manure pile can crusade fly outbreaks, and invite coyotes, vultures, and rats if dead animals are in these piles.
If the piles are placed near homes, the emissions may cause illness to residents.

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

This can also be a cloudy expanse. See Instructions for Determining Atmospheric precipitation Forecasts ( pages 55-56 of this CAFO permit guide) to meet how atmospheric condition forecasts are applicable to CAFOs. Y'all may use the instructions along with the CAFO's CNMP to determine if they are spreading waste product in violation of their NPDES let.

The photo at correct, taken in Lenawee County just earlier a predicted rainfall, shows manure waste matter awarding on a adequately steep slope.

Is in that location a fourth dimension of year when CAFOs can't spread wastes?

Non necessarily, this may be different for each CAFO. Each CAFO's NPDES permit guides what can and cannot be done.

Are there fields CAFOs tin never spread waste on?

Aye. Soil testing for phosphorus must be done for fields that will exist used for land application of CAFO wastes. If the soil tests signal high amounts of phosphorus, a CAFO cannot utilize waste to that field. That information is included in the Comprehensive Nutrient Management Programme.

How far away does the CAFO waste matter accept to stay from h2o, lake, wetland, and so on?

This refers to a "setback", and the required setback information would exist found in the CAFO'southward NPDES permit.

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

No. Notwithstanding, yous would demand to contact your local route commission or police department to file a complaint on this issue. Unless the spill gets into waters of the country, or is an extreme amount, it is necessary to contact the government bureau that has jurisdiction over roads.

CAFOs' Impacts on Humans

Practise I need to worry well-nigh a CAFO going in about my house?

Yeah. You need to organize and brainwash your neighbors as soon as possible. See How to Stop Approval of a New CAFO.

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

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

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

CAFO waste tin can be sprayed, irrigated, diddled by the current of air, spread further through surface ponding of rainfall, or from runoff that may reach your property. Loftier powered fans used to cool the hundreds of animals in the buildings ofttimes blow out bedding or other contaminated materials.

Are there man health furnishings from exposure to CAFO manure?

Aye. Many people have go ill living about and working at CAFOs. Some people develop animate problems, coughs, headaches, hydrogen sulfide poisoning, and ammonia poisoning. Hither are some manufactures from Environmental Wellness Perspectives :

air pollution

Air pollution from industrial swine operations and claret pressure of neighboring residents
Country application of treated sewage sludge: community health and environmental justice
EHP – Dust 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 Found Workers
Antibiotics, Bacteria, and Antibiotic Resistance Genes (Sentry the Nascence of a Superbug)

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

Commencement, this activity may not be illegal. Just in that location are provisions the country applicator must follow to protect your home and property. Then starting time, to be safe - get your children indoors, close your windows, and take down your laundry. Then outset documenting your observations, in example the activity is causing a problem.

Accept fourth dimension-stamped pictures of the field where waste is being spread;
Take time-stamped pictures of the application equipment;
Become the weather condition forecast or written report from the National Weather condition Service and save the written report on your calculator, or impress information technology. See Instructions for Determining Precipitation Forecasts ( pages 55-56 of this CAFO permit guide) to run across how atmospheric condition forecasts utilise to timing of CAFO activities. You may use the instructions along with the CAFO'southward CNMP to decide if they are spreading waste in violation of their NPDES let.
Get your notebook, note the appointment and time and all your observations: if the CAFO is spreading waste product over any field tiles , next to county drains , next to any open waterways, almost a tile riser , over a catch basin , near a dike , or almost your h2o well. Draw sketches, indicate which way is due north, roads, buildings, homes.

Additionally, certificate:

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

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

In a nutshell, you will take pictures, take water samples, and even smell the water at your own risk (smell it for manure or some other wrong smell). Comport a notebook and continue information, such as a journal or a checklist. Accept someone else verify your information, if at all possible.

Tin I have photographs of a CAFO?

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

Without trespassing onto private property, and only working from the road-correct-of-way, or from the property of a landowner who gave you lot permission, have photos of:

operations to certificate their practices. These may evidence illegal practices such as pumping into a waterway or canton bleed or into a catch basin.
buildings to show number of buildings and location. Pictures here may also bear witness dead animals.
activities to show land awarding of waste, types of hauling equipment. Certificate excavation or tiling activities , too.
people only if they are harassing or stalking you, such equally following you in your vehicle or blocking your path. If someone is harassing you, you should likewise call the police or 911. Photos of people may too be taken if they are doing something you believe is illegal that would be a violation of the CAFO's NPDES water belch allow or consent order , if the CAFO has one.

How can I protect myself while monitoring?

Notify the constabulary or local sheriff that yous and a companion will be monitoring water near CAFOs, as explained beneath.
Bring someone with you if at all possible.
Calibrate any equipment ahead of fourth dimension to save time while at the monitoring location.
Brand sure all your equipment is turned on ahead of fourth dimension and set up to be used.
Employ the ii-minute dominion : try to practice everything you need to do as fast, but as accurately, as possible. This includes using the dissolved oxygen (DO) meter to measure DO and water temperature, grabbing a water sample, using a meter to mensurate the pH, using the ammonia strips, taking pictures, and then on.

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

You must never trespass. Check for road right-of-style distances. Realize that state highways are different than local roads. A CAFO operator may file charges against yous if you are trespassing on their property. If you plan to access a stream abroad from the road, y'all must go permission from the landowner.

What should I exercise if I see:

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

If you come across 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 appropriate agency with your concerns.

Can the CAFO go after me if I report them?

Yes. A CAFO tin become after yous if you report them. Some agencies take anonymous tips, and you can study them that way. Call back that documentation is extremely important, so be diligent in your investigation before you study a violation. Ever document your investigation, and e'er exist credible.

H2o Quality Bug

My well water tastes funny? Tin can I go my well water tested?

If your well h2o tastes or smells funny, exercise not drink your water until you accept it tested. When testing, certificate the test and take pictures.

You can test your well yourself. In Michigan, your local health section may furnish free bottles with an pedagogy sheet and where to send the sample. It costs between $14.00 and $16.00 for to have samples tested. The educational activity sheet explains the sampling protocol. Other states likely have similar services.

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

Lime Lake is green in spring after being subject to discharges all winter of 2004. While at that place may exist other reasons that water tin can turn dissimilar colors, CAFOs are often the culprit if they are located either upstream or up the loma from a lake or stream.

A green lake may be a sign of a silage leachate discharge that has caused an algae bloom. The photo at right shows an case, at Lime Lake near Hudson, Michigan.
A white color may be from milk or milkhouse waste existence discharged into h2o.
Black h2o may be a sign of a direct discharge of beast waste product into the water.
Brown water may exist diluted animal waste material in the water.

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

Is it safe to touch the water?

No. Never presume that h2o is condom well-nigh a CAFO or a state awarding site. Always clothing make clean condom gloves. If bloodworms are present in the water, this can exist an indicator that you lot may get hepatitis if you lot are not wearing gloves. You could also go Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Pfisteria, or other illnesses from the fecal matter in the water. If you have an open cut anywhere, you may want to accept your companion accept any water samples.

What do I exercise if I fall in the water?

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

Wash as much off before you go into your vehicle.
Go directly to where you tin shower.
Monitor your health.
If y'all get ill or were totally submerged, contact your physician.
If you lot become ill immediately, go to the emergency room.

Is a roadside ditch considered part of the surface water ?

You would have to contact the proper bureau to make this decision. If the roadside ditch connects to waters of the state it may be considered surface water, open drain, or county drain.

What practise I practise if you see expressionless fish downstream from the CAFO?

Document the dead fish by taking pictures; count how many and what kind if you tin can place them. If there is a big number of dead fish, such as any number to a higher place 8 or ten, contact the agency in charge in your state. In Michigan this would be the Department of Natural Resources. You should also notify the MDEQ.

CAFO Basics

How many locations/facilities make up a CAFO?

One facility can be a CAFO. Two or more AFOs under 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 apply a common area or system for the disposal of wastes.

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

Where do CAFOs keep their animals?

All the animals are kept within large cramped barns, they are non immune outside to graze.

Where does CAFO waste come up from?

The animals within the CAFO produce the majority of the waste. One 1400-pound cow produces approximately 17.7 gallons of carrion and urine daily. CAFO waste matter can also come up from the production areas, such as lagoons or other waste storage structures, silage bunkers, the milkhouse, contaminated stormwater, manure piles, and compost.

What kinds of animal wastes or CAFO wastes are there?

There are many dissimilar contaminants and materials in CAFO wastes. Milkhouse waste, silage leachate, claret from birthing, antibiotics, chemicals, are just some of the brute wastes. See What pollutants do CAFOs produce? and What's in CAFO waste?

What typically grows in the fields almost CAFOs?

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

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

Surface and groundwater pollution can come from CAFOs. Groundwater contamination tin can crusade E. coli poisoning and blue babe syndrome. Surface water contagion can crusade illness from Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and Pfisteria. See How exercise CAFOs pollute water?

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

There are over 168 chemicals in and around manure. Some of the chief gases are methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. You may have trouble breathing 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. See How practise CAFOs pollute air?

CAFO Regulations & Government Subsidies

What is a CAFO permit and where practise I find information technology?

Michigan CAFOs are required to have only ane permit. It is a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System , or NPDES permit, given to authorize discharges to waters of the state simply nether particular circumstances. Past signing the permit application, a CAFO owner shows adept intentions to do the right thing. But the permit is only as skillful as the management at the CAFO. Permits do not guarantee compliance with the law. They do not protect public wellness. Recall, from a CAFO'south point of view, it is easier to ask forgiveness than to enquire permission!

You tin detect NPDES permits at the Michigan Section of Ecology Quality Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation website. Be sure to run across How to apply for a NPDES permit. Also see the U.South. Environmental Protection Agency NPDES webpage and its Animal Feeding Operations department.

There are two categories of NPDES permits for CAFOs. Some CAFOs are required to apply for an Individual NPDES Allow, that is written specifically for that one particular CAFO. Others are immune to apply for a Document of Coverage (COC) to be covered under the CAFO General Permit, where the terms of the permit are applied to all the CAFOs with COCs. The General Permit linguistic communication assumes all the CAFOs covered are akin, so they all have the aforementioned requirements. Encounter the MDEQ CAFO website for more than data.

Exercise CAFOs become money or subsidies from the government?

About CAFOs receive subsidies in some form. Milk subsidies, route grants through local or state economical evolution agencies, EQIP , rural development grants, renewable energy grants, bonds, crop subsidies, etc.

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

See GAAMPS The Michigan Right to Subcontract Human activity, P.A. 93, was enacted in 1981 to provide farmers with protection from nuisance lawsuits. This country statute authorizes the Michigan Committee of Agriculture to develop and prefer More often than not Accepted Agricultural and Management Practices (GAAMPs) for farms and farm operations in Michigan. These voluntary practices are based on bachelor technology and scientific research to promote audio environmental stewardship and help maintain a farmer's correct to farm.

MOU is a Memorandum of Understanding between the Michigan Section of Agriculture and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality , entered into for the purpose of delineating the respective roles and responsibilities regarding state agency response actions to environmental and nuisance complaints nigh farm operations.

Go Help

What organizations tin aid you find information about CAFOs?

There are many organizations that can help:

Sierra Club
Socially Responsible Agricultural Project
Nutrient & Water Watch
Waterkeeper Brotherhood
Society for Responsible Agriculture
U.S. EPA (Visit country agencies for your country)

Also visit CAFO Help Contact Info for more information.

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

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