Transcript Document

Water Policy Panel
Angela Hamm –
Water Policy Director, Hoosier Environmental Council
Bowden Quinn –
Conservation Program Coordinator for the Sierra
Club, Hoosier Chapter
Jeanette Neagu –
President, Save the Dunes Board of Directors
Hoosier Environmental Council
Water Policy Priorities
Angela Hamm, Water Policy Director
Falon French, Water Policy Associate
Confined Feeding
• Raising of animals for food,
fur or recreation in lots, pens,
ponds, sheds or buildings
• Confined, fed and maintained
for at least 45 days during
any year
• Any animal feeding operation
engaged in the confined
feeding of at least 300 cattle,
or 600 swine or sheep, or
30,000 fowl
Concentrated Animal Feeding
Operations
• CAFO Animal Threshold Numbers:
700 mature dairy cows
2,500 swine
55,000 turkeys,
30,000 laying hens or broilers (with a
liquid manure handling system)
125,000 broilers (with a solid manure
handling system)
• These farms are defined as point
sources by the CWA and are required
to obtain permit coverage
Animal Waste
• Collected and stored in pits, tanks, lagoons and other storage
devices
• Applied to area fields as fertilizer
• When stored and applied properly it provides a natural source of
nutrients for crop production
Environmental and Health Concerns
• Manure can leak or spill from storage pits, lagoons or tanks
• Improper application of manure to the land can impair surface or
ground water quality
• Overuse of antibiotics can lead to antibiotic resistance in
humans
Indiana
• 625 CAFOs produce more than 80% of livestock raised
in Indiana
• Approximately 3,000 regulated farms
• 3.6 million hogs
Location of
industrial
agriculture
operations in
Indiana
Muncie Sow Unit
Who Cleans Up when the hog farm goes
bankrupt?
• 4.5 million gallons of manure
deliberately spilled into a ditch
eventually made its way into the
Mississenawa River killing 1,017 fish
• IDEM had declared an emergency and
planned to transport 4-5 million gallons
of manure to Indianapolis for treatment
at a wastewater treatment plant at a cost
of aprox. $405,000
• Cost of over $200,000
Randolph County Fish Kill
• 232,000 gallons of hog manure
applied onto a field upstream of a
major fish kill during rainy weather in
June
• Over 106,000 fish died in Bear
Creek and the Mississinewa River
the weekend of June 19-20
• Producer subsequently admitted to
land applying additional manure on
an adjacent field. The fields were
empty
Grand Lake St. Mary’s, Ohio
• 80% of Grand Lake watershed is farmland
• 629,504 tons of manure produced every year
• Majority of the problem results from the land application of
manure and commercial fertilizers
• July 30, 2010 Action Plan has significance for Indiana as
Ohio has determined to “Foster efforts to export more manure
from the watershed”
• 90% of the chicken manure and 75% of the turkey manure
(90,000 tons in 2008) is sold out of state and exported by
poultry litter brokers
• Ohio has requested EQIP funds to facilitate the transport of
hog manure to Indiana
Legislation
• Financial assurance package
• Phase out of non-therapeutic use of
antibiotics in livestock
• Phosphorous Free Lawn Fertilizer
• Out of State import of waste
• Satellite manure lagoons
• Staging and storage of manure
• Increased setbacks
What You Can Do
• Support laws that hold industrial agriculture accountable
• Contact your legislator and advocate for
– industry financial assurance
– a ban on the use of antibiotics in livestock for feed efficiency
and growth promotion
– increase setbacks from Indiana waterways
• Postcards available at HEC table
• Change your consumer habits.
Coal
• Numerous negative water quality
impacts of coal that occur through its
mining, processing, burning, waste
storage and transport including, acid
mine drainage, burial of streams and
rivers, coal sludge disposal, deposition
from coal fired power plants, and coal
ash
Coal Ash Waste
•Coal ash - a byproduct of burning coal for electricity
•Ash contains concentrated levels of heavy metals and
minerals: arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium, thallium, boron,
and many others
Indiana
• 3rd highest producer of coal ash, 1st in tons
stored
•
53 surface ponds (most in nation), mostly
unlined, where coal ash is mixed with water
•
Unlined ponds allow leaching into groundwater
•
Town of Pines and East Mt. Carmel:
groundwater/drinking water contamination
•States currently set standards for coal ash;
Indiana is failing to protect the health of its
citizens
•U.S. EPA in current rulemaking process;
comment period through November 19, 2010
•Proposed two options: coal ash classified as
Subtitle C (hazardous waste) will protect the
health of Hoosiers; other option will allow the
state to continue with current lack of health
safeguards
•Please weigh in! www.hecweb.org
Questions
• Angela Hamm, Water Policy Director, Hoosier
Environmental Council
– [email protected]
– (317) 685-8800 ext. 116
• Falon French, Water Policy Associate, Hoosier
Environmental Council
– [email protected]
– (317) 685-8800 ext. 101