Which Statement About Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (Cafos) Is True?

Index

What is a CAFO?
What pollutants do CAFOs produce?
Are there are different kinds of CAFOs?
What's in CAFO waste?
How practise CAFOs pollute water?
How practise CAFOs pollute air?
How exercise CAFOs impact human health?
Are CAFOs sustainable?
Exercise CAFOs need taxpayer subsidies?
How are CAFOs regulated and permitted?
Nigh CAFO Waste material & Spreading
H2o Quality Issues
CAFO Basics
CAFO Regulations & Government Subsidies
Get Help

What is a CAFO?

A CAFO, or Concentrated Animate being Feeding Operation , is an industrial-sized livestock functioning.

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 near ofttimes 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, every bit well as massive, windowless buildings where livestock are confined in boxes or stalls.
Other terms used to describe a CAFO: mega subcontract, animal manufacturing plant, pig motels, poop factories, industrial farms.

(Besides see CAFO in the glossary and CAFO Basics below.)

What pollutants practice 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 make 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 past-products of this industry:

The amount of urine and feces produced by the smallest CAFO is equivalent to the quantity of urine and carrion produced past 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 found well-nigh CAFOs and can carry disease-causing bacteria, fungus, or other pathogens.
Animals oft die 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.

Oft you'll hear owners of CAFOs debate that the wastes produced by the livestock provide nutrients that help them kickoff the use of synthetic fertilizers. The sheer amount of wastes produced, however, often overwhelms the ability of the land and crops to absorb CAFO wastes.

Are in that location different kinds of CAFOs?

Yeah.

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

Dairy and grunter CAFOs often use clean water to wash creature wastes and contaminants from the buildings into waste-storage structures or lagoons.
Poultry CAFOs use dry-waste systems. The waste falls from fauna cages to the flooring, 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 product accumulates on the basis, often washing off into nearby ditches and streams.

What's in CAFO waste?

In addition to found nutrients such equally phosphorus and nitrogen, CAFO waste is likely to contain:

antibiotic-resistant leaner
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 oftentimes stored untreated in gigantic anaerobic waste storage structures or pits for up to half dozen months. After storage, it is spread on farm fields for disposal. This is where CAFO wastes ofttimes 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 cause bright-light-green algae blooms in ditches, streams, and lakes. Every bit these surface-h2o algae blooms dice off, the oxygen in the h2o is depleted. What does this do? Information technology can lead to fish kills. Additionally, drinking-h2o plants must remove these nutrients earlier water is fit for consumption.

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

How do CAFOs pollute water?

Water pollution is possible at virtually any point in a CAFO'southward functioning.

In the production area, 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 flow into drains.
Pipes or hoses carrying wastes can break or get unattached. Waste storage structures can overflow or burst.
Field tiles or take hold of basins can exist 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 material. These trucks haul the wastes from the production area waste-storage structures to fields that are frequently many miles away.

One 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 carry the wastes direct into canton drains and streams.

When CAFO wastes are practical to farm fields, h2o pollution can exist caused past overapplication of wastes, direct runoff into surface waters, or past traveling through the ground- or take hold of basins into field tiles or drainage ditches that discharge straight into surface waters. Tests have shown that waste applied to the surface of a field can take a little every bit 45 minutes to reach the field tiles three to iv feet below the surface.

Manure wastes are too sprayed from travel irrigators , trucks, tractors, or draglined. This waste matter can flow directly into surface waters due to wind, by 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 equally a method to go on odor from CAFO state application downwards, even so there is significant business concern that this could simply lead to quicker travel time through the soils into field drainage tiles. Some CAFO owners accept converted field drainage tiles into de facto septic systems past plugging them with gate valves and other devices. These systems at all-time but delay the pollution and don't proceed pollution from flowing to groundwater. They certainly don't remove pathogens. Groundwater is hard to monitor, so the extent and source of contamination are oftentimes harder to pinpoint than surface water contamination.

How do CAFOs pollute air?

Air pollution from CAFOs can come through numerous methods. Some can cause bad odors, but others emit several dangerous gases as manure and biological materials suspension downwardly in the absence of oxygen such equally in the lesser of a manure pit. Marsh gas, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide are some of the gases. Exposure to hydrogen sulfide can cause neurological problems, including extreme anger, depression, and illness. The prototype at right shows a family raising the American flag in their yard, while a hydrogen sulfide meter shows concentrations of the contaminant at 2 parts per one thousand thousand in October 2008. The source CAFO can be seen across the pino tree. Unfortunately, this home is besides 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 inside the buildings is potentially mortiferous to the animals and humans inside if the fans ever end operating. Normally the fans merely blow the contaminated air to the outside where information technology can pollute the whole customs. Poultry operations blow ammonia and particulate matter, including feathers and chicken feces out of the buildings.

Waste storage structures

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

Treatment of the wastes

The CAFO wastes stored in waste matter storage structures is non treated or aerated, often resulting in extreme off-gassing of pollutants such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S ) when the wastes are transported and sprayed onto farm fields.

Techniques used in land application

For example, once or twice each year 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 fifty-fifty worse air pollution.

How do CAFOs touch man health?

CAFOs may cause health effects to their neighbors from pollution damage to the air, country and water.
Over 168 gases are emitted from CAFO waste, including hazardous chemicals such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and marsh gas.
Hydrogen sulfide poisoning can crusade irreversible encephalon harm, dizziness, headache, nausea, sore throats, sinusitis, burning optics, and other illnesses.
When phosphorus and nitrogen are over-applied to fields, the nutrients can move through the soil into field tiles to surface water, or through soil to groundwater and drinking water.
Elevated levels of nitrates in drinking water tin cause "bluish babe syndrome", a potentially fatal blood disorder.

Are CAFOs sustainable?

No.

CAFOs are resource-intensive and unsustainable.
CAFOs fauna-raising practices are neither economically feasible or sustainable.
CAFOs use big amounts of electricity for lighting, equipment, milkers, pumps, and irrigators.
CAFOs employ 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's clean fresh groundwater every day to dilute waste and to wash manure from milking parlors and CAFO barns.

Practice CAFOs demand taxpayer subsidies?

Yes.

CAFOs tin't survive without taxpayer subsidies. CAFOs receive many subsidies, such every bit milk cost support guarantees, federal EQIP money through the Farm Bill , Development Correct Agreements, tax abatements, grants, bonds, even economical development 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 than coalition that aims to end subsidies to polluting factory farms to level the playing field for sustainable livestock farmers. Less support for polluting factory farms means a more than sustainable Michigan. Acquire more at MoreforMichigan.org.

How are CAFOs regulated and permitted?

Federal laws establish minimum standards for the regulation of any action that causes air pollution or water 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 Agency provides no regulation of air pollution problems from CAFOs. Under the Right-to-Know provisions of CERCLA 42 United states of americaC. §11001 et seq. (1986), also known as Title Three of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Human action (SARA) , the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Deed - otherwise known equally EPCRA (pronounced EP-kra) - was enacted by Congress as the national legislation on community prophylactic. This constabulary is designed to assist local communities protect public wellness, prophylactic, and the environment from chemical hazards. CAFOs are required to report emissions of some pollutants, nigh 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 H2o Act does provide some regulation of CAFOs, although interpretations of the extent of those requirements are being litigated. State laws must be at least as restrictive as the federal police, but in Michigan and another states information technology has required citizens to bring challenges to state's delegation under the Clean Water Act 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) let in order to proceed operations. Several states (including Michigan) now crave NPDES permits for all CAFOs, including new ones.

Information technology is important to review the regulations in your state in order to empathize what is allowed and not allowed. ( EPA links to land programme 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 act every bit the gatekeeper for securing any enforcement actions by the state, particularly in the area of air pollution. In Michigan, for example, the Department of Agriculture is given the responsibility for investigating air pollution complaints from CAFOs, although they accept no enforcement authorization. Except in an emergency, the agriculture director must make a referral to the Department of Ecology Quality earlier whatsoever action tin can exist taken by the environmental agency regarding those complaints.

CAFO Waste & Spreading

Is it illegal to spread CAFO manure on the ground?

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

What is in CAFO manure?

CAFO manure contains the animals' feces and urine, plus, the definition also includes other materials such as bedding, compost, and other raw materials. CAFO manure is too loaded with the establish nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, which tin can cause algae blooms if released to surface water, and pathogens such equally Escherichia coli (E. coli) , and other fecal coliforms.

Manure may also comprise:

growth hormones used to increase the production of milk in the cows
antibiotics that proceed the animals from getting ill
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 area waste matter from the equipment being washed or used
contaminated stormwater stormwater is considered clean unless it'southward 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 according to a 2001 USEPA Study (Appendix A, page 235-244).

Can a methane digester solve the CAFO's waste matter problem?
Not really. This is like capturing a fart in a jar. It may assistance reduce some odors, merely it has severe limits.

Marsh gas digesters do non :

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

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

In short, no. And, as y'all read the bulleted list beneath, think that a Michigan CAFO can take a compost pile inside 200 anxiety of its neighbor.

In addition to manure and other materials, CAFO compost piles may take up to 20,000 pounds of dead animals in one pile (and if just one animate being had mad cow disease and this pile is spread on the state, the prions could enter the food or milk supply). For more data on prions, meet the Centre for Disease Control Prion Diseases webpage.
CAFO compost piles depict vermin, rats, flies, coyotes, and vultures.
Near CAFO compost sites exercise non have runoff containment structures, and the food-rich liquids tin can cause algae blooms if they reach surface waters.
the odors emitted can get very strong if the composting is not washed correctly.

What is a CAFO discharge?

Discharge means any direct or indirect release of any waste, 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 chosen many things: a spill, accident, terrorist attack, or blamed on birds, cherry trees, deer, horses, geese, raccoons, or the neighbors. But rarely is information technology called what it is: a mess from the CAFO with 3,500 cows.
A CAFO discharge can exist brown and odor similar animal waste matter; it can be white and smell like bad milk; information technology tin be light-green and sour which may be leachate from the silage (chopped corn that they feed to cows).
A CAFO discharge may also be diluted with stormwater. In this case, the CAFO maxim is "dilution is the solution to pollution."

Are CAFO operators allowed to spread animal waste matter on snowfall?

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

Instead the answer to this question is "maybe". How would you lot find out?

Outset find out if the CAFO has whatsoever restrictions in its NPDES let or consent lodge -- if they have one--for spreading waste on snow.
Next larn which fields in each CAFO'southward Comprehensive Nutrient Management Programme (CNMP) are allowed to have winter application on them, and whether it can exist solids or liquids.
And then notice out the Manure Application Adventure Index (MARI) for each field. This research grant proposal from the Michigan State Academy to the U.Due south. Geological Survey (USGS) describes employ of the Manure Application Take chances Alphabetize for evaluating fields for wintertime manure land application.

Whether or non a CAFO is immune to spread waste on snow depends either on what is in their Comprehensive Nutrient Direction Plan , or on whether the CAFO has an club from the state with specifics for winter awarding. This may exist determined on a field by field basis. Many CAFOs will spread waste matter on snowfall but to become rid of it and then hope they don't get caught. The problem is that when the snow melts, the manure will run off into the nearest ditch or stream, considering frozen basis cannot absorb h2o. Often the manure on the snowfall will fifty-fifty cause the snow and ice to melt. If yous observe CAFO operators spreading waste product on snow or frozen ground, and you know their CNMP and NPDES permit doesn't allow them to, you should contact the MDEQ commune office , or phone call the Pollution Emergency Alert System (PEAS).

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

This is a grey-area question. Past dumping manure piles, a CAFO creates an off-site production area of waste matter. This off-site production area cannot belch to waters of the state. See page 6 of the DEQ Wastewater Discharge Permit Rules for the official definition of "production area".

How long can manure exist piled at a site? The Comprehensive Nutrient Direction Plan may contain information 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 crusade illness to residents.

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

This can also exist a cloudy area. Encounter Instructions for Determining Precipitation Forecasts ( pages 55-56 of this CAFO allow guide) to encounter how weather condition forecasts are applicable to CAFOs. You may apply the instructions along with the CAFO's CNMP to determine if they are spreading waste in violation of their NPDES permit.

The photo at right, taken in Lenawee County just earlier a predicted rainfall, shows manure waste application on a fairly steep gradient.

Is in that location a time of twelvemonth when CAFOs can't spread wastes?

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

Are there fields CAFOs can never spread waste material on?

Yep. Soil testing for phosphorus must be washed for fields that volition be used for land application of CAFO wastes. If the soil tests signal high amounts of phosphorus, a CAFO cannot apply waste to that field. That information is included in the Comprehensive Food Management Plan.

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

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

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

No. However, you would demand to contact your local route commission or law section to file a complaint on this effect. Unless the spill gets into waters of the state, or is an extreme corporeality, it is necessary to contact the government agency that has jurisdiction over roads.

CAFOs' Impacts on Humans

Exercise I need to worry nigh a CAFO going in almost my house?

Yeah. You demand to organize and educate your neighbors as soon as possible. Run into How to Stop Blessing of a New CAFO.

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

Property values will driblet the closer in proximity to a CAFO that y'all live. Information tin be found from realtor.com and other sources.

How does the CAFO waste end upwards on my property?

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

Are there human wellness furnishings from exposure to CAFO manure?

Yes. Many people accept become ill living near and working at CAFOs. Some people develop breathing problems, coughs, headaches, hydrogen sulfide poisoning, and ammonia poisoning. Here are some articles from Ecology Health Perspectives :

air pollution

Air pollution from industrial swine operations and blood force per unit area of neighboring residents
Land application of treated sewage sludge: customs 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 Plant Workers
Antibiotics, Bacteria, and Antibiotic Resistance Genes (Lookout the Birth of a Superbug)

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

First, this activity may not be illegal. But in that location are provisions the state applicator must follow to protect your dwelling house and property. And so first, to be condom - get your children indoors, close your windows, and take down your laundry. Then start documenting your observations, in case the activity is causing a problem.

Take time-stamped pictures of the field where waste material is being spread;
Accept time-stamped pictures of the application equipment;
Go the atmospheric condition forecast or report from the National Weather Service and salve the study on your computer, or print it. See Instructions for Determining Precipitation Forecasts ( pages 55-56 of this CAFO permit guide) to see how weather forecasts apply to timing of CAFO activities. You may use the instructions along with the CAFO's CNMP to determine if they are spreading waste in violation of their NPDES permit.
Get your notebook, note the date and time and all your observations: if the CAFO is spreading waste over whatever field tiles , next to county drains , next to whatsoever open waterways, near a tile riser , over a catch basin , near a dike , or about your water well. Describe sketches, indicate which style is due north, roads, buildings, homes.

Additionally, document:

how far the application is from your property;
if yous or your family unit are feeling ill, which may indicate emissions of a toxic gas. (An odor will not make you lot ill. An emission volition give you lot a headache, nausea, burning sinuses, sore pharynx.)
if you smell odor, and what it smells like (for case, it could smell like manure, or like soured milk, or even like diesel fuel.)

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

In a nutshell, you will take pictures, have water samples, and even smell the water at your ain adventure (aroma it for manure or some other incorrect scent). Carry a notebook and keep information, such as a periodical or a checklist. Accept someone else verify your information, if at all possible.

Can I take photographs of a CAFO?

Aye. Pictures ideally should show the time, date, and location of what is happening. This is especially important if rainfall is predicted and a facility is land-applying waste anyway, perhaps 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 individual property, and but working from the road-correct-of-way, or from the property of a landowner who gave you permission, accept photos of:

operations to document their practices. These may evidence illegal practices such as pumping into a waterway or county 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 application of waste matter, types of hauling equipment. Certificate earthworks or tiling activities , besides.
people only if they are harassing or stalking y'all, such every bit following y'all in your vehicle or blocking your path. If someone is harassing you, you should also call the police or 911. Photos of people may also be taken if they are doing something y'all believe is illegal that would be a violation of the CAFO's NPDES water discharge permit or consent order , if the CAFO has one.

How can I protect myself while monitoring?

Notify the constabulary or local sheriff that you and a companion will be monitoring water near CAFOs, as explained beneath.
Bring someone with yous if at all possible.
Calibrate any equipment alee of time to salve time while at the monitoring location.
Make sure all your equipment is turned on alee of fourth dimension and fix to be used.
Employ the two-infinitesimal dominion : endeavor to practice everything you need to do every bit fast, but as accurately, as possible. This includes using the dissolved oxygen (Practise) meter to measure Practise and h2o temperature, grabbing a water sample, using a meter to measure the pH, using the ammonia strips, taking pictures, and then on.

Transport discover to the local sheriff or state police of: which CAFOs you will exist monitoring and where, what blazon and color of vehicle you lot'll be in, plus the license plate number. Tell them your and other monitors' names, addresses, and phone numbers, and cell telephone numbers. Tell them clearly what you are doing and let them know you are monitoring the h2o or air. This way, if someone complains near your activities, the police volition know where to find you, and can call you.

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

What should I do if I see:

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

If you run into whatsoever of these practices or waste products at a CAFO, you lot should document information technology with photos that record the fourth dimension and date. If you lot believe a violation has occurred, contact the appropriate bureau with your concerns.

Can the CAFO get after me if I report them?

Yes. A CAFO can go subsequently you if you lot report them. Some agencies take anonymous tips, and you tin can report them that fashion. Remember that documentation is extremely important, so be diligent in your investigation before you report a violation. E'er certificate your investigation, and always be credible.

Water Quality Issues

My well water tastes funny? Can I become my well h2o tested?

If your well h2o tastes or smells funny, practice not drinkable your water until you accept it tested. When testing, document the exam and take pictures.

Yous can test your well yourself. In Michigan, your local health department may furnish free bottles with an instruction sail and where to send the sample. Information technology costs between $14.00 and $xvi.00 for to take samples tested. The instruction canvass explains the sampling protocol. Other states likely have similar services.

Why is my lake dark-green? White? Black? Chocolate-brown?

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

A greenish lake may be a sign of a silage leachate discharge that has caused an algae bloom. The photo at right shows an instance, at Lime Lake nearly Hudson, Michigan.
A white color may be from milk or milkhouse waste material beingness discharged into water.
Black h2o may exist a sign of a straight discharge of brute waste into the h2o.
Dark-brown water may be diluted brute waste material in the h2o.

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

Is it safe to touch the water?

No. Never assume that water is safe near a CAFO or a land application site. Always wear clean safe gloves. If bloodworms are present in the h2o, this can be an indicator that you may become hepatitis if you are not wearing gloves. You could also get Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Pfisteria, or other illnesses from the fecal affair in the water. If you have an open cut anywhere, you lot may want to have your companion have any water samples.

What do I do if I autumn in the h2o?

Depending where and how you fall in, make clean upwards as before long every bit possible.

Wash every bit much off earlier you get into your vehicle.
Go directly to where you can shower.
Monitor your health.
If you become 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 agency to make this determination. If the roadside ditch connects to waters of the state it may be considered surface water, open up drain, or canton bleed.

What do I exercise if y'all see dead fish downstream from the CAFO?

Document the dead fish by taking pictures; count how many and what kind if y'all can identify them. If there is a large number of dead fish, such as any number to a higher place eight or ten, contact the agency in charge in your state. In Michigan this would be the Section of Natural Resources. Yous should also notify the MDEQ.

CAFO Basics

How many locations/facilities make upwardly a CAFO?

One facility can be a CAFO. Two or more AFOs under common ownership are considered to exist a single AFO for the purposes of determining the number of animals at an operation, if the AFOs abut 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 be considered equally part of a unmarried AFO if they come across the definition nether the Rules of DEQ Wastewater Belch Permits.

Where do CAFOs keep their animals?

All the animals are kept within big cramped barns, they are not allowed outside to graze.

Where does CAFO waste come up from?

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

What kinds of fauna wastes or CAFO wastes are there?

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

What typically grows in the fields well-nigh CAFOs?

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

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

Surface and groundwater pollution can come from CAFOs. Groundwater contamination can cause E. coli poisoning and blue babe syndrome. Surface h2o contamination can cause illness from Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and Pfisteria. See How practise CAFOs pollute h2o?

What kind of air pollution can 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. If you feel ill from waste awarding, notify your local health department or physician immediately. See How do CAFOs pollute air?

CAFO Regulations & Government Subsidies

What is a CAFO allow and where exercise I find it?

Michigan CAFOs are required to take merely one allow. Information technology is a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Organization , or NPDES permit, given to authorize discharges to waters of the land only under particular circumstances. Past signing the permit application, a CAFO possessor shows good intentions to do the correct matter. Just the permit is only as skilful every bit the management at the CAFO. Permits do not guarantee compliance with the law. They practice not protect public health. Recollect, from a CAFO's point of view, it is easier to ask forgiveness than to inquire permission!

Yous can observe NPDES permits at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Concentrated Fauna Feeding Operation website. Exist certain to see How to use for a NPDES permit. Also see the U.S. Ecology 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 Let, that is written specifically for that one detail CAFO. Others are allowed to apply for a Document of Coverage (COC) to be covered nether the CAFO General Permit, where the terms of the permit are practical to all the CAFOs with COCs. The General Permit language assumes all the CAFOs covered are akin, and then they all have the same requirements. Come across the MDEQ CAFO website for more data.

Do CAFOs get coin or subsidies from the regime?

Most CAFOs receive subsidies in some form. Milk subsidies, road grants through local or state economic evolution agencies, EQIP , rural development grants, renewable energy grants, bonds, ingather subsidies, etc.

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

See GAAMPS The Michigan Right to Farm Deed, P.A. 93, was enacted in 1981 to provide farmers with protection from nuisance lawsuits. This country statute authorizes the Michigan Commission of Agriculture to develop and adopt Generally Accustomed 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'south right to farm.

MOU is a Memorandum of Understanding betwixt the Michigan Department of Agronomics and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality , entered into for the purpose of delineating the respective roles and responsibilities regarding land agency response deportment to ecology and nuisance complaints almost farm operations.

Go Assist

What organizations can help yous find information virtually CAFOs?

At that place are many organizations that can help:

Sierra Club
Socially Responsible Agricultural Project
Food & Water Spotter
Waterkeeper Alliance
Club for Responsible Agriculture
U.S. EPA (Visit country agencies for your state)

Also visit CAFO Help Contact Info for more information.

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

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