Human Effects From Hormone Beef Cafos

Index

What is a CAFO?
What pollutants do CAFOs produce?
Are there are different kinds of CAFOs?
What'southward in CAFO waste?
How do CAFOs pollute water?
How do CAFOs pollute air?
How practice CAFOs impact human health?
Are CAFOs sustainable?
Do CAFOs need taxpayer subsidies?
How are CAFOs regulated and permitted?
About CAFO Waste & Spreading
Water Quality Problems
CAFO Basics
CAFO Regulations & Government Subsidies
Get Assist

What is a CAFO?

A CAFO, or Full-bodied Fauna Feeding Operation , is an industrial-sized livestock functioning.

The quantity of urine and feces from fifty-fifty the smallest CAFO is equivalent to the urine and feces produced past 16,000 humans.
A CAFO can house anywhere from hundreds to millions of animals.
The animals in CAFOs are most oftentimes dairy cows, hogs, or chickens.
CAFO animals are confined at least 45 days or more per year in an area without vegetation.
CAFOs include open feedlots, as well as massive, windowless buildings where livestock are confined in boxes or stalls.
Other terms used to depict a CAFO: mega farm, beast factory, hog motels, poop factories, industrial farms.

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

What pollutants do 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 information technology possible to produce massive quantities of milk, eggs, and meat, nonetheless 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 feces produced by 16,000 humans.
CAFO waste is usually not treated to reduce disease-causing pathogens, nor to remove chemicals, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, or other pollutants.
Over 168 gases are emitted from CAFO waste matter, including chancy chemicals such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and methane.
Airborne particulate matter is found about CAFOs and tin can conduct disease-causing bacteria, fungus, or other pathogens.
Animals oft die in CAFOs. Their carcasses, oftentimes in large numbers, must be dealt with.
Infestations of flies, rats, and other vermin are commonplace around CAFOs and therefore around CAFO neighbors.

Often you'll hear owners of CAFOs contend that the wastes produced by the livestock provide nutrients that assistance them offset the use of constructed fertilizers. The sheer corporeality of wastes produced, nonetheless, often overwhelms the ability of the land and crops to blot CAFO wastes.

Are at that place dissimilar kinds of CAFOs?

Yes.

1 type of CAFO houses livestock in buildings the animals seldom leave. Removing wastes from these buildings is a major challenge.

Dairy and hog CAFOs oft use clean water to wash animal wastes and contaminants from the buildings into waste-storage structures or lagoons.
Poultry CAFOs use dry-waste systems. The waste material falls from beast 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.

Some other blazon of CAFO is the feedlot , which keeps the animals outdoors in pens. Hither the manure waste accumulates on the ground, often washing off into nearby ditches and streams.

What's in CAFO waste?

In improver to plant nutrients such as 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 to a higher place.

CAFO waste is often 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 often 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 can crusade bright-green algae blooms in ditches, streams, and lakes. As these surface-water algae blooms dice off, the oxygen in the water is depleted. What does this do? It can atomic number 82 to fish kills. Additionally, drinking-h2o plants must remove these nutrients before water is fit for consumption.

Pathogens such as Eastward.coli leaner, cryptosporidium, and salmonella, all of which can cause sickness or death in humans and animals, may be present in CAFO wastes.

How do CAFOs pollute water?

Water pollution is possible at virtually whatsoever bespeak in a CAFO'southward functioning.

In the product 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 conveying wastes can break or become unattached. Waste storage structures can overflow or outburst.
Field tiles or catch basins can be installed that bleed wastes direct into surface waters.

ECCSCM

It may take dozens of trips per 24-hour interval by semis or tanker trucks to dispose of CAFO waste product. These trucks haul the wastes from the product area waste material-storage structures to fields that are frequently many miles away.

One of the master 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 directly into canton drains and streams.

When CAFO wastes are applied to farm fields, water pollution tin exist caused by overapplication of wastes, direct runoff into surface waters, or past traveling through the ground- or grab 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 little as 45 minutes to accomplish the field tiles three to four anxiety beneath the surface.

Manure wastes are likewise sprayed from travel irrigators , trucks, tractors, or draglined. This waste tin flow straight into surface waters due to current of air, by directly 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 straight into the soil is encouraged as a method to keep odor from CAFO land application down, withal there is pregnant business organization 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 delay the pollution and don't go along pollution from flowing to groundwater. They certainly don't remove pathogens. Groundwater is difficult to monitor, so the extent and source of contamination are often harder to pinpoint than surface water contagion.

How exercise CAFOs pollute air?

Air pollution from CAFOs tin can come through numerous methods. Some can cause bad odors, but others emit several dangerous gases as manure and biological materials break downward in the absence 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 can cause neurological bug, including extreme anger, depression, and affliction. The prototype at right shows a family raising the American flag in their m, while a hydrogen sulfide meter shows concentrations of the contaminant at 2 parts per million in Oct 2008. The source CAFO can be seen beyond the pine tree. Unfortunately, this dwelling is besides surrounded on 3 sides by fields often used past 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 deadly to the animals and humans within if the fans ever stop operating. Normally the fans simply blow the contaminated air to the outside where it can pollute the whole community. Poultry operations blow ammonia and particulate matter, including feathers and chicken feces out of the buildings.

Waste storage structures

Pig operations often build the waste storage construction immediately beneath the expanse where the animals are kept, with slats in the floors to let wastes to simply drib into the pit.

Treatment of the wastes

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

Techniques used in country application

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

How do CAFOs impact human wellness?

CAFOs may cause wellness furnishings to their neighbors from pollution damage to the air, land and h2o.
Over 168 gases are emitted from CAFO waste product, including hazardous chemicals such equally ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and methane.
Hydrogen sulfide poisoning can cause irreversible brain harm, dizziness, headache, nausea, sore throats, sinusitis, burning eyes, 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 can cause "blueish infant syndrome", a potentially fatal claret disorder.

Are CAFOs sustainable?

No.

CAFOs are resource-intensive and unsustainable.
CAFOs animal-raising practices are neither economically viable or sustainable.
CAFOs utilize big 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 matter, supplies, and chemicals.
CAFOs utilise millions of gallons of Michigan's clean fresh groundwater every mean solar day to dilute waste product and to wash manure from milking parlors and CAFO barns.

Do CAFOs need taxpayer subsidies?

Yes.

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

These taxpayer supports not merely encourage the growth of this industry, they undercut the power of traditional livestock operations to compete with CAFOs. Without the subsidies, CAFOs would neglect financially. Sierra Club is a member of the Less=More coalition that aims to terminate subsidies to polluting factory farms to level the playing field for sustainable livestock farmers. Less support for polluting factory farms means a more sustainable Michigan. Learn more than at MoreforMichigan.org.

How are CAFOs regulated and permitted?

Federal laws constitute minimum standards for the regulation of any activity that causes air pollution or water pollution. Nevertheless, through aggressive lobbying by the promoters of CAFOs, federal laws for the environmental oversight of CAFOs are extremely weak.

Currently, the U.Southward. Environmental Protection Agency provides no regulation of air pollution issues from CAFOs. Under the Right-to-Know provisions of CERCLA 42 UsC. §11001 et seq. (1986), likewise known as Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) , the Emergency Planning and Customs Right-to-Know Act - otherwise known equally EPCRA (pronounced EP-kra) - was enacted by Congress as the national legislation on community safety. This constabulary is designed to aid local communities protect public wellness, safety, and the environment from chemical hazards. CAFOs are required to report emissions of some pollutants, most 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 Water Deed does provide some regulation of CAFOs, although interpretations of the extent of those requirements are existence litigated. State laws must be at least as restrictive as the federal police, but in Michigan and some other states it has required citizens to bring challenges to state's delegation under the Make clean Water Act to force the agencies to implement the laws. Federal law requires that any CAFO which has had an illegal belch into surface waters must obtain a National Pollutant Belch Elimination System (NPDES) permit in guild to continue operations. Several states (including Michigan) now crave NPDES permits for all CAFOs, including new ones.

It is important to review the regulations in your state in order to sympathize what is allowed and non allowed. ( EPA links to land program websites. )

State and federal agronomical agencies often play a role in establishing voluntary standards that CAFOs and other livestock operations are expected to abide by. In some instances, the agronomical agencies will act as the gatekeeper for securing any enforcement actions by the state, particularly in the area of air pollution. In Michigan, for instance, the Department of Agriculture is given the responsibility for investigating air pollution complaints from CAFOs, although they have no enforcement authority. Except in an emergency, the agriculture manager must make a referral to the Department of Environmental Quality before any action tin be taken past the environmental agency regarding those complaints.

CAFO Waste product & Spreading

Is it illegal to spread CAFO manure on the ground?

No, it is non illegal to spread CAFO manure waste on the basis. While this website describes many different situations in which a CAFO may be spreading their waste on state, and many possibly harmful effects of that activity, it is not of itself illegal. It is illegal if a CAFO spreads waste in such a way that information technology moves off the country 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 as well includes other materials such equally bedding, compost, and other raw materials. CAFO manure is also loaded with the institute nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, which can cause algae blooms if released to surface water, and pathogens such every bit Escherichia coli (E. coli) , and other fecal coliforms.

Manure may also contain:

growth hormones used to increase the product of milk in the cows
antibiotics that keep the animals from getting ill
chemicals used to clean the milkhouse equipment or used as additives to lagoons
milkhouse wastes discharged on the floor while milking
birthing fluids from cows calving
claret from birthing
silage leachate from the chopped corn in bunkers
production area waste from the equipment existence done or used
contaminated stormwater stormwater is considered clean unless it'south immune to come up 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 Written report (Appendix A, page 235-244).

Tin a methane digester solve the CAFO's waste material trouble?
Not really. This is like capturing a fart in a jar. Information technology may help reduce some odors, merely it has severe limits.

Methane digesters do non :

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

Can composting the manure solve the CAFO'southward waste matter problem?

In short, no. And, as you read the bulleted list below, remember that a Michigan CAFO tin can take a compost pile within 200 feet of its neighbor.

In add-on to manure and other materials, CAFO compost piles may accept up to twenty,000 pounds of dead animals in one pile (and if just ane animal had mad cow disease and this pile is spread on the land, the prions could enter the nutrient or milk supply). For more information on prions, come across the Center for Affliction Control Prion Diseases webpage.
CAFO compost piles draw vermin, rats, flies, coyotes, and vultures.
Nigh CAFO compost sites practice not have runoff containment structures, and the nutrient-rich liquids can cause algae blooms if they reach surface waters.
the odors emitted tin can become very potent if the composting is not done correctly.

What is a CAFO discharge?

Belch means whatsoever straight or indirect release of whatever waste, waste matter 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 called many things: a spill, accident, terrorist set on, or blamed on birds, cherry-red copse, 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 be brown and smell like animal waste; it tin exist white and scent like bad milk; it tin can exist 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 saying is "dilution is the solution to pollution."

Are CAFO operators allowed to spread animal waste on snow?

spreading manure on snow with ponding The real answer should be "no, non under any circumstance."

Instead the answer to this question is "perchance". How would you lot discover out?

First find out if the CAFO has whatever restrictions in its NPDES let or consent social club -- if they take one--for spreading waste material on snow.
Next learn which fields in each CAFO's Comprehensive Nutrient Management Programme (CNMP) are allowed to take winter awarding on them, and whether information technology can exist solids or liquids.
Then discover out the Manure Awarding Run a risk Index (MARI) for each field. This research grant proposal from the Michigan Land Academy to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) describes utilise of the Manure Application Take chances Alphabetize for evaluating fields for wintertime manure land awarding.

Whether or not a CAFO is allowed to spread waste on snow depends either on what is in their Comprehensive Nutrient Management Programme , or on whether the CAFO has an social club from the state with specifics for wintertime application. This may be adamant on a field by field footing. Many CAFOs will spread waste material on snow merely to get rid of it and then hope they don't get caught. The trouble is that when the snowfall melts, the manure volition run off into the nearest ditch or stream, considering frozen ground cannot absorb h2o. Ofttimes the manure on the snow volition even crusade the snow and ice to melt. If you lot observe CAFO operators spreading waste on snow or frozen basis, and yous know their CNMP and NPDES permit doesn't permit them to, yous should contact the MDEQ district function , or telephone call the Pollution Emergency Alert System (PEAS).

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

This is a grey-area question. By dumping manure piles, a CAFO creates an off-site product area of waste. This off-site production area cannot discharge to waters of the land. See folio 6 of the DEQ Wastewater Discharge Permit Rules for the official definition of "production area".

How long tin can manure be piled at a site? The Comprehensive Food Management Program may comprise information on this practice.
A manure pile tin can cause 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 material before atmospheric precipitation or rainfall?

This tin also be a cloudy area. See Instructions for Determining Precipitation Forecasts ( pages 55-56 of this CAFO let guide) to run into how atmospheric condition forecasts are applicable to CAFOs. You lot may employ the instructions along with the CAFO's CNMP to make up one's mind if they are spreading waste product in violation of their NPDES let.

The photo at right, taken in Lenawee County simply before a predicted rainfall, shows manure waste awarding on a fairly steep slope.

Is there a time of year when CAFOs tin't spread wastes?

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

Are there fields CAFOs can never spread waste on?

Yes. Soil testing for phosphorus must exist done for fields that volition be used for state application of CAFO wastes. If the soil tests betoken loftier amounts of phosphorus, a CAFO cannot apply waste to that field. That data is included in the Comprehensive Nutrient Direction Plan.

How far away does the CAFO waste material have 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's NPDES allow.

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

No. Notwithstanding, you would need to contact your local road 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 regime agency that has jurisdiction over roads.

CAFOs' Impacts on Humans

Practice I need to worry about a CAFO going in near my house?

Yes. You need to organize and educate your neighbors every bit soon as possible. Come across How to Stop Blessing of a New CAFO.

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

Property values volition drop the closer in proximity to a CAFO that you live. Information tin exist found from realtor.com and other sources.

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

CAFO waste product can exist sprayed, irrigated, blown by the current of air, spread farther through surface ponding of rainfall, or from runoff that may accomplish your property. Loftier powered fans used to cool the hundreds of animals in the buildings often blow out bedding or other contaminated materials.

Are there human health furnishings from exposure to CAFO manure?

Yes. Many people have go ill living nearly and working at CAFOs. Some people develop breathing issues, coughs, headaches, hydrogen sulfide poisoning, and ammonia poisoning. Hither are some articles from Environmental Wellness Perspectives :

air pollution

Air pollution from industrial swine operations and claret force per unit area of neighboring residents
Land awarding 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 Establish Workers
Antibiotics, Leaner, and Antibiotic Resistance Genes (Picket the Birth of a Superbug)

What practice I do when they are spreading CAFO waste side by side to my house?

Offset, this activeness may non be illegal. Simply at that place are provisions the land applicator must follow to protect your habitation and belongings. And then commencement, to be safe - get your children indoors, close your windows, and take downwards your laundry. So get-go documenting your observations, in case the activity is causing a problem.

Accept time-stamped pictures of the field where waste matter is being spread;
Take time-stamped pictures of the application equipment;
Get the weather forecast or report from the National Weather Service and save the report on your reckoner, or impress it. Come across Instructions for Determining Precipitation Forecasts ( pages 55-56 of this CAFO permit guide) to come across how weather condition forecasts use to timing of CAFO activities. You may use the instructions forth with the CAFO's CNMP to determine if they are spreading waste in violation of their NPDES let.
Become your notebook, annotation the engagement and fourth dimension and all your observations: if the CAFO is spreading waste over whatsoever field tiles , next to county drains , next to whatever open waterways, near a tile riser , over a catch basin , nearly a dike , or near your water well. Draw sketches, indicate which way is north, roads, buildings, homes.

Additionally, certificate:

how far the application is from your holding;
if you or your family are feeling ill, which may betoken emissions of a toxic gas. (An odor volition not make you ill. An emission will give you a headache, nausea, burning sinuses, sore throat.)
if you lot smell smell, and what it smells like (for example, information technology could smell similar manure, or like soured milk, or even like diesel.)

How do I document the activities I observe well-nigh the CAFO?

In a nutshell, you will take pictures, take water samples, and fifty-fifty scent the water at your ain adventure (smell it for manure or some other wrong odor). Deport a notebook and keep information, such as a journal or a checklist. Have someone else verify your information, if at all possible.

Tin I take photographs of a CAFO?

Yes. Pictures ideally should show the time, date, and location of what is happening. This is specially of import if rainfall is predicted and a facility is state-applying waste material anyway, peradventure fifty-fifty in violation of its NPDES permit or consent club. (run into MDEQ's CAFO website for more information on this situation).

Without trespassing onto private belongings, and only working from the road-right-of-way, or from the property of a landowner who gave y'all permission, take photos of:

operations to document their practices. These may show illegal practices such as pumping into a waterway or county drain or into a catch basin.
buildings to testify number of buildings and location. Pictures here may also prove dead animals.
activities to show land application of waste, types of hauling equipment. Certificate digging or tiling activities , also.
people only if they are harassing or stalking y'all, such as following you in your vehicle or blocking your path. If someone is harassing you, you should too phone call the police force or 911. Photos of people may also be taken if they are doing something you believe is illegal that would be a violation of the CAFO'due south NPDES water belch permit or consent order , if the CAFO has one.

How tin can I protect myself while monitoring?

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

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

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

What should I practise if I run across:

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

If y'all see any of these practices or waste material products at a CAFO, you should document information technology with photos that record the time and date. If you believe a violation has occurred, contact the advisable agency with your concerns.

Can the CAFO go afterwards me if I written report them?

Yes. A CAFO can go later on you if you report them. Some agencies take anonymous tips, and you can written report them that way. Remember that documentation is extremely of import, so be diligent in your investigation before you study a violation. Always certificate your investigation, and always exist credible.

H2o Quality Issues

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

If your well h2o tastes or smells funny, do not potable your water until you have it tested. When testing, document the test and take pictures.

You tin test your well yourself. In Michigan, your local health department may furnish free bottles with an instruction sheet and where to send the sample. It costs between $14.00 and $sixteen.00 for to have samples tested. The instruction canvass explains the sampling protocol. Other states likely accept like services.

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

Lime Lake is green in spring after being subject to discharges all winter of 2004. While there may be other reasons that h2o can turn different colors, CAFOs are ofttimes the culprit if they are located either upstream or upwards the colina from a lake or stream.

A green lake may be a sign of a silage leachate belch that has acquired an algae bloom. The photo at right shows an example, at Lime Lake virtually Hudson, Michigan.
A white color may be from milk or milkhouse waste being discharged into water.
Black water may exist a sign of a direct discharge of animal waste matter into the water.
Brownish water may exist diluted animate being waste matter in the water.

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

Is information technology safety to impact the water?

No. Never presume that water is safe nearly a CAFO or a land application site. Always wear clean rubber gloves. If bloodworms are present in the water, this can exist an indicator that you may get hepatitis if you are non wearing gloves. You could too get Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Pfisteria, or other illnesses from the fecal affair in the h2o. If you have an open cutting anywhere, you may want to have your companion take any water samples.

What do I exercise if I fall in the water?

Depending where and how you fall in, clean upwardly as shortly as possible.

Wash every bit much off before you get into your vehicle.
Go directly to where yous tin can shower.
Monitor your health.
If you become sick or were totally submerged, contact your doctor.
If you lot become ill immediately, become to the emergency room.

Is a roadside ditch considered part of the surface water ?

You would accept 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 county drain.

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

Document the dead fish past taking pictures; count how many and what kind if you can identify them. If there is a big number of dead fish, such as whatsoever number above eight or ten, contact the agency in charge in your state. In Michigan this would be the Section of Natural Resources. You should also notify the MDEQ.

CAFO Basics

How many locations/facilities brand up a CAFO?

One facility can be a CAFO. Ii or more AFOs nether mutual ownership are considered to be a single AFO for the purposes of determining the number of animals at an functioning, if the AFOs adjoin each other, or if they utilise a common expanse or system for the disposal of wastes.

In Michigan, satellite barns and satellite lagoons would likewise exist considered equally part of a unmarried AFO if they come across the definition under the Rules of DEQ Wastewater Discharge Permits.

Where exercise CAFOs go along their animals?

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

Where does CAFO waste product come from?

The animals within the CAFO produce the bulk of the waste. I 1400-pound cow produces approximately 17.7 gallons of feces and urine daily. CAFO waste can as well come from the product areas, such as lagoons or other waste storage structures, silage bunkers, the milkhouse, contaminated stormwater, manure piles, and compost.

What kinds of brute wastes or CAFO wastes are there?

In that location are many dissimilar contaminants and materials in CAFO wastes. Milkhouse waste, silage leachate, claret from birthing, antibiotics, chemicals, are just some of the animal wastes. Come across What pollutants do CAFOs produce? and What's in CAFO waste matter?

What typically grows in the fields near CAFOs?

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

What types of h2o pollution tin come from CAFOs, and what health problems tin arise?

Surface and groundwater pollution tin can come up from CAFOs. Groundwater contagion tin can cause E. coli poisoning and blue baby syndrome. Surface water contamination can cause illness from Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and Pfisteria. See How do 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 methyl hydride, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. You may take trouble animate when the CAFO operators are spraying the fields with waste product. If you lot feel ill from waste matter 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 have only one permit. Information technology is a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Organization , or NPDES permit, given to qualify discharges to waters of the state simply under item circumstances. Past signing the permit application, a CAFO owner shows skillful intentions to do the right thing. But the permit is merely as good equally the management at the CAFO. Permits practise not guarantee compliance with the law. They do not protect public wellness. Think, from a CAFO'southward signal of view, it is easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission!

You tin find NPDES permits at the Michigan Department of Ecology Quality Concentrated Brute Feeding Operation website. Be sure to encounter How to use for a NPDES let. Also see the U.S. Environmental Protection Bureau NPDES webpage and its Animal Feeding Operations section.

There are two categories of NPDES permits for CAFOs. Some CAFOs are required to use for an Individual NPDES Let, that is written specifically for that one particular CAFO. Others are immune to apply for a Certificate of Coverage (COC) to exist covered under 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, so they all have the same requirements. See the MDEQ CAFO website for more information.

Practice CAFOs go money or subsidies from the government?

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

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

Encounter GAAMPS The Michigan Correct to Farm Act, P.A. 93, was enacted in 1981 to provide farmers with protection from nuisance lawsuits. This state statute authorizes the Michigan Commission of Agriculture to develop and adopt Generally Accepted Agricultural and Management Practices (GAAMPs) for farms and farm operations in Michigan. These voluntary practices are based on available technology and scientific research to promote audio environmental stewardship and aid maintain a farmer's right to subcontract.

MOU is a Memorandum of Understanding betwixt the Michigan Department of Agriculture and the Michigan Department of Ecology Quality , entered into for the purpose of delineating the respective roles and responsibilities regarding country agency response deportment to ecology and nuisance complaints about subcontract operations.

Become Help

What organizations tin can assist you notice information most CAFOs?

There are many organizations that tin help:

Sierra Club
Socially Responsible Agricultural Project
Food & H2o Watch
Waterkeeper Brotherhood
Guild for Responsible Agriculture
U.S. EPA (Visit state agencies for your state)

Also visit CAFO Help Contact Info for more data.

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