Pig Farmers Sue the EPA

MADISON, Wisc. (CN) - Pig farmers sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, challenging a Dec. 18, 2008 final rule that requires farms that raise animals to report emissions from "animal waste." No fair, the National Pork Producers Council and the Wisconsin Pork Association say in Federal Court.

The pork producers insist they are exempt from the reporting requirements of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

"EPA's sole justification for this carve-out - to provide nonemergency farm emission information - goes beyond EPA's mandate under the emergency reporting provisions of EPCRA, and in any event is not supported by the Rule's administrative record, which shows that there is no accepted means for quantifying these emissions. Although farm emission rates are now subject to a nationwide study intended to provide data that will eventually allow these emissions to be quantified, currently there is insufficient information for individual farms to make meaningful reports under the challenged Rule," the complaint states.