In early July, a Colorado district court affirmed a decision to uphold the use of the state’s existing Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) General Permit.
The Larimer County District Court rejected the Center for Biological Diversity and Food & Water Watch’s appeal for its lawsuit alleging “factory farm pollution” from Colorado CAFOs. The district court once again affirmed the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s (CDPHE) decision from April 2024 that the general permit meets Colorado’s groundwater protection requirements.
CDPHE and the Colorado Livestock Association (CLA) were named as defendants in the case that first originated in October 2021.
“Colorado’s General Permitting system sets one of the highest standards nationwide in environmental stewardship and protection,” said Kory Kessinger, CLA president. “This decision was the right result for livestock-raising families in Colorado and preserves a permitting system that protects our state’s natural resources while maintaining economic viability for Colorado’s agriculture industry for generations to come.”
Lawsuit background
In October 2021 and again in June 2022, the Center for Biological Diversity, Food & Water Watch and the University of Denver Sturm Law Clinic challenged the state’s general water pollution permit for CAFOs. The groups argued that “factory farms” are a major source of water pollution in the state and that Colorado’s “lenient permit terms allow regulators to look the other way.”
An administrative law judge ruled that additional liners and groundwater testing wells were needed.
The CLA engaged legal counsel and filed for party status to protect the general permit. “There was an attempt to settle the dispute with permit language that was even more protective of water sources, but the environmental activists did not accept the offer,” CLA said.
In April 2024, the CHPHE accepted the CLA’s appeal and reversed the initial decision by the administrative law judge, reaffirming the general permit’s validity.
At the time, CLA said that if Colorado were to require individual permits for CAFOs, it would raise expenses for farmers and overlap existing rules. The groups noted that this was part of environmental groups’ efforts to “put large animal agriculture operations out of business.”
The Center for Biological Diversity and Food and Water Watch sued CDPHE and CLA in May 2024, alleging the state violated laws by not including pollution-monitoring provisions in the general permits.
“Because CDPHE’s decision to affirm the general permit without the federally required representative monitoring provisions was unlawful, this court should declare the permit unlawful, vacate the final agency order and remand the general permit back to CDPHE with an order to modify the general permit to include the required representative monitoring provisions,” the groups said in their suit.
Following oral arguments in early May, the Larimer County District Court affirmed in July, again, CDPHE’s decision to uphold the CAFO general permit for the state. — Anna Miller Fortozo, WLJ managing editor
