On Thursday, Aug. 7, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order that confirmed a reporting exemption for air emissions from the natural breakdown of animal waste at a farm. The court affirmed that the reporting exemption under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June 2019, is appropriate because of the relationship between the reporting mandates under EPCRA and the Comprehensive Emergency Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as the federal Superfund law.

This decision comes more than 20 years after USPOULTRY, the National Turkey Federation and the National Chicken Council formally requested that EPA exempt poultry farms from the requirement to report the emission of ammonia under CERCLA and EPCRA. The request emphasized the principle that the CERCLA and EPCRA programs were never meant to cover the release of naturally occurring substances into the air that originates from the breakdown of animal waste. This was affirmed by Congress by the passage of the Farm Act in 2018, which expressly exempted farms from reporting the emission of substances from animal waste into the air under the CERCLA statute.

This ruling comes after a coalition of environmental groups filed a motion for summary judgment challenging the exemption. USPOULTRY, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau intervened in the lawsuit on EPA’s behalf.

Nath Morris, president of USPOULTRY, noted, “We are pleased that the court has acknowledged EPA's deliberate determination that the EPCRA reporting exemption is appropriate.  This common-sense ruling settles an issue that has spanned more than 20 years and rightfully removes what would be nothing more than an unnecessary paperwork exercise for farmers and ranchers across the U.S.”