The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will withdraw a rulemaking to further regulate wastewater discharges from meat and poultry facilities.
Speaking at Christensen Farms in Minnesota on Aug. 30, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency is withdrawing a proposed Clean Water Act rule on effluent limitation guidelines and standards.
“EPA is saving billions of dollars in costs the American people would otherwise see in the prices of the meat and poultry they buy at the grocery store while ensuring the protection of human health and the environment,” Zeldin said.
In January 2024, EPA proposed a regulation to revise existing effluent limitation guidelines and pretreatment standards for the meat and poultry products industry. In a pre-published final action posted in late August, the agency said it would not finalize revised guidelines and standards after considering public comments.
“Under section 509(b)(1) of the Clean Water Act (CWA), judicial review of the Administrator’s final action regarding effluent limitations guidelines and pretreatment standard can only be done by filing a petition for review in the United States Court of Appeals within 120 days after the decision is considered issued for purposes of judicial review,” the agency said in the notice.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins commended the rule’s withdrawal, saying it saves meat and poultry processing from unnecessary red tape. “By rejecting this costly and burdensome rule proposal by the previous administration, the Trump Administration is ensuring that small and mid-sized meat and poultry facilities can keep their doors open, continue feeding our communities, and support good-paying jobs across rural America,” Rollins said.
Proposed rule
On Jan. 23, 2024, EPA proposed revising the existing technology-based effluent limitations guidelines and standards for the meat and poultry products point source category.
EPA solicited public comments on potential revisions and additions for existing and new sources, including more stringent effluent limitations on total nitrogen, new effluent limitations on total phosphorus, updated effluent limitations for other pollutants, new pretreatment standards for indirect dischargers, and revised production thresholds for some of the subcategories in the existing rule.
The agency also considered effluent limitations on chlorides, establishing effluent limitations for E. coli for direct dischargers and including conditional limits for indirect discharges that discharge to publicly owned treatment works to remove nutrients.
“In the EPA’s judgment, it is not appropriate to impose additional regulation on the (meat and poultry processing) industry, given Administration priorities and policy concerns, including protecting food supply and mitigating inflationary prices for American consumers following a protracted period of high inflation from 2020 through 2024,” the agency said in its notice.
EPA said other stressors require more attention, including COVID-19 food supply and supply chain issues, inflationary pressures, highly pathogenic avian flu and the New World screwworm. In addition, the agency said the regulatory options would negatively impact the environment and public health in the form of more air pollution and solid waste.
Rule impacts
The guidelines were last amended in 2004 and currently apply to about 180 of the estimated 5,300 meat and poultry facilities nationwide, according to the Meat Institute. EPA estimated between 845 and 1,620 facilities would be subject to and incur costs if the proposed new rules became final.
The Meat Insitute joined other industry groups to create the Meat and Poultry Products Industry Coalition to commission an economic impact analysis that found the number of facility closures if the guidelines went into effect would be about 74 sites. The report also found the projected number of near-term job losses associated with facility closures would increase from the EPA’s estimated 17,000 to more than 30,000, and direct job losses would total nearly 80,000.
The Meat Institute applauded the rule’s withdrawal. “This important decision by Administrator Zeldin ends a regulatory disaster that would have forced meat processing facilities to close, causing food prices to go up and hardship for livestock and poultry producers,” said Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts. — Anna Miller Fortozo, WLJ managing editor
