The Colorado Office of Administrative Courts will hear a challenge filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Food and Water Watch regarding a statewide general water pollution permit for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
The Center for Biological Diversity said the announcement follows a “years-long legal fight” by the groups seeking permit regulations that require CAFOs to monitor and report their water pollution. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment requested a hearing in response to the groups’ challenge. The hearing will take place virtually on Oct. 31.
The petition is filed against the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Division of Environmental Health and Sustainability and Water Quality Control Division. The Colorado Livestock Association is listed as an intervenor-respondent in court documents.
The petition asserts the department’s issuance of the general water pollution permit was arbitrary, capricious and contrary to the law. The groups say the permit does not incorporate representative monitoring conditions that are sufficient to ensure compliance with the terms of the permit as required by the Clean Water Act, namely the prohibition on production area discharges to surface waters via groundwater.
The petition also states the department’s assumption that the terms of Regulation 81 in the Code of Colorado Regulations—which applies to animal feeding operations control regulation—eliminate discharges to surface water through groundwater is factually flawed, and the department must implement groundwater monitoring at sites where a discharge may occur.
The Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement the state’s permitting process for CAFOs contains loopholes that conceal the timing and amounts of pollution released by the facilities into the waterways. “Of the 100 factory farms in Colorado that maintain a Clean Water Act permit, 99 operate under the terms of the general permit at issue in this challenge,” the group said.
“Colorado can’t continue to pick and choose which industries get a pass for their unlawful pollution,” said Hannah Connor, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Factory farms are a major source of water pollution in Colorado, in no small part because the state’s lenient permit terms allow regulators to look the other way.”
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition in October 2021 and again in June 2022, this time joined by Food and Water Watch. In the petition, the groups say they are committed to protecting Colorado’s surface waters and groundwaters against impairment from discharge of pollutants, as well as “supporting the fundamental constitutional rights of Coloradans to a healthy environment, clean drinking water, and swimmable, fishable waterways.” — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
