Owners of meat and poultry facilities around the country tell the Environmental Protection Agency that they will close their businesses before complying with a nearly year-old regulation requiring them to clean up their wastewater discharges.
The EPA proposed the regulation in December 2023, which would apply to wastewater discharges from meat and poultry products (MPP) facilities. The MPP industry discharges large quantities of pollutants, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, into the nation’s waters.
It’s not clear how this significant regulation will impact food safety.
According to the EPA, many meat and poultry facilities are located near bodies of water impaired by nutrient pollution. The agency’s proposal would leverage the latest pollution control technologies to cut the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other pollutants discharged to the nation’s waters by approximately 100 million pounds of pollutants per year, improving water quality for downstream communities and ecosystems.
At the rollout of the proposed rule, EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox said: “The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to following the law and the best available science to safeguard communities from pollution.”
According to Fox, EPA’s proposal to reduce water pollution from meat and poultry processing facilities will prevent millions of pounds of pollutants from entering our nation’s waters.
Last amended in 2004, the meat and poultry ELGs currently apply to 180 of the estimated 5,300 meat and poultry facilities nationwide.
The U.S. Poultry and Egg Association figures the EPA rule will cost the industry $1.16 billion a year to comply. The association predicts 74 of its facilities will close rather than comply. Potential job losses under those scenarios would run from 127,000 to 317,000 in the poultry sector alone.
A coalition of meat and poultry industry groups is on record saying the EPA’s proposed wastewater guidelines will cost hundreds of millions more than the agency estimates, kill at least tens of thousands more jobs, and close many processing facilities, resulting in hardship for livestock and poultry producers.
“We believe that the proposed Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELG) would thwart the Biden administration’s efforts and limit, or reverse, these outcomes for small processors, rural job creation, producer livelihoods, and a resilient food supply chain,” the coalition said.
The Meat and Poultry Products Industry Coalition made the remarks in comments submitted about the EPA’s proposed rule revising the ELGs for wastewater discharged by meat and poultry processing and rendering facilities.
EPA estimates between 845 and 1,620 facilities would be subject to and incur costs should the proposed ELGs become final. The full comments are here.
The Meat and Poultry Products Industry Coalition consists of the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Meat Institute, the National Chicken Council, the National Pork Producers Council, the National Turkey Federation, the North American Renderers Association, and the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association.
EPA job loss estimates are much lower than industry estimates, and those have been challenged. A Koch Foods environmental manager estimates a 50,000 job loss, not 17,000 as the EPA estimated.
A U.S. Chamber of Commerce unit concluded that EPA would impose a $1 million cost on every meat and poultry business in the country.
Job loss estimates aren’t the only concern. Consumers have experienced significant inflation in meat, poultry and egg prices during the past four years. Production cutbacks because of plant closures are likely to raise prices even further.
The Clean Water Act requires EPA to revise industry-wide wastewater treatment limits — called effluent limitation guidelines or ELGs — to keep pace with innovations in pollution control technology. The first ELGs for facilities that process meat and poultry products were issued in 1974; the last revision was made in 2004. ELGs are based on the performance of demonstrated wastewater treatment technologies and are intended to represent the greatest pollutant reductions that are economically achievable for an entire industry.
In September 2021, the EPA announced its Preliminary Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 15, a detailed agency study of facilities that process meat and poultry products. That study led to the EPA’s decision to revise the existing effluent regulation for these facilities.
The proposed rule would establish updated technology-based pollution limits that are supposed to be affordable and achievable using existing demonstrated technologies.
Additionally, implementing these ELGs includes flexibility to achieve the established limits using different technologies or operational strategies. This flexibility serves as an incentive for facilities and control technology vendors to develop even lower-cost compliance options.
Background
Oil and grease, organic material, salts, ammonia, and significant quantities of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) are pollutants found in MPP wastewater. The MPP category is one of the country’s largest sources of industrial nutrient pollution. Nutrient pollution is one of the most widespread and costly environmental problems impacting surface water quality in the United States. Excessive nitrogen and phosphorus in surface water can lead to a variety of problems, including eutrophication and harmful algal blooms, which have negative impacts on human health and the environment.
Rule Summary
The proposed rule contains three options. For existing direct dischargers, the EPA’s preferred option would establish more stringent effluent limitations for nitrogen and, for the first time, limitations for phosphorus. The preferred option would also establish, for the first time, pretreatment standards for oil and grease, total suspended solids, and biochemical oxygen demand. The preferred regulatory option would apply to approximately 850 of the 5,000 MPP facilities nationwide.
The proposal contains two additional options on which the EPA is requesting public comment. These options would apply effluent limitations to additional direct and indirect dischargers and establish pretreatment standards for nitrogen and phosphorus for some indirect discharging facilities included in the preferred option.
In addition to the three options, the EPA is requesting comment on a provision requiring segregation and management of high-salt waste streams. The EPA estimates that the proposed rule would reduce pollutants discharged through wastewater from MPP facilities by approximately 100 million pounds annually.
Source: Food Safety News
