Let’s state the obvious. Nutrient pollution is a massive problem in U.S. meat processing facilities that discharge millions of pounds of phosphorus and nitrogen into the nation’s waterways each year. Within the Environmental Protection Agency’s industrial category, meat and poultry product (MPP) facilities are the nation’s highest phosphorus and second-highest nitrogen polluters.
You would think the EPA has stringent regulations to turn off the Big Meat nutrient pollution fire hose.
But no.
The last time EPA updated nutrient pollution standards for the nation’s largest meat processing plants was in 2004. And currently there are no phosphorus pollution limitations for MPP facilities. None.
The numbers are equally depressing when examining meat processing plants that send their waste to publicly owned treatment works. EPA’s Preliminary Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 15 found:
“…a review of 200 indirect MPP facilities shows that 73% of the POTWs receiving MPP wastewater have violation(s) of permit limits for pollutants found in MPP wastewater. Pollutants include nitrogen, phosphorus, TSS, BOD, oil and grease, chloride, total residual chlorine, coliform bacteria (e.g., E. coli), and metals. Of the more than one hundred corresponding POTW discharge permits reviewed, only 45% have nitrogen limits and only 15% have phosphorus limits, which indicates that many POTWs may not be removing much of the nutrient load discharged to POTWs from MPP industrial users.”
By now you have to be wondering why the feds haven’t addressed the issue.
EPA is required by the Clean Waters Act to review MPP standards every two years and potentially propose revised effluent limitations guidelines. Between 2004 and 2019 EPA was…well…lax. In 2019, EPA finally conducted a review and…decided to do nothing.
Environmentalists, fed up by EPA’s lack of compliance with the law, filed a lawsuit in 2019 demanding the government take MPP reviews seriously. Last May, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia approved an agreement between plaintiffs and EPA to propose new MPP regulations by the end of last year with finalization slated no later than August 2025.
Forced by the courts to do its job, EPA released its new MPP nutrient pollution plan last December. And the plan is underwhelming.
Yes, EPA’s “preferred option” offers more stringent limitations for nitrogen discharges, and, for the first time, creates limitations on phosphorus, as well as pretreatment standards for oil, grease, total suspended solids and biochemical oxygen demand.
But the new regs will cover only about 850 of the nation’s 5,000 MPP facilities. Moreover, the preferred plan fails to require nutrient controls for 3,708 meat processing plants that use public treatment facilities.
EPA does offer a stronger option that would force more than 40% of MPPs using public sewer systems to remove nutrients. Better. But not enough.
Needless to say Big Meat probably isn’t very happy about the possibility of being forced to update nutrient pollution controls at its processing plants. A coalition of meat and poultry product manufacturers recently requested a minimum 90-day extension to add comments opposing the EPA plan to the Federal Register. And lost. The comment period closed in late March.
But this is just the beginning. Expect a multi-year food fight between EPA, environmentalists, Big Meat, and the courts. Buckle up.
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