Posted September 23, 2014
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has decided to not appeal the key federal ruling in favor of Lois Alt, a West Virginia farmer, according to an American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) release available here. A previous blog post on the case is available here.
In October 2013, the U.S. Court for the Northern District of West Virginia earlier ruled in favor of farmer Lois Alt. The court rejected EPA’s contention that the “Clean Water Act regulates ordinary stormwater runoff from the farmyard (non-production areas) at large livestock or poultry farms.”
A federal court has never addressed the question of stormwater runoff from farms so the ruling carries implication for tens of thousands of poultry and livestock farms. EPA’s “voluntary dismissal” is most likely the result of the agency’s desire to avoid a loss in the appellate court. The appeal could still move forward if any of the five environmental groups that intervened in support of EPA wish to move forward without the government.
“EPA knows its effort to regulate perfectly well-run farms cannot withstand legal scrutiny, and the agency doesn’t quite know how to deal with that,” AFBF President Bob Stallman said. Both AFBF and the West Virginia Farm Bureau joined the suit on the side of Alt. “Apparently, the agency would rather move on and continue pursuing its regulatory agenda farm-to-farm, but not defend it in court.” Although EPA’s motivation seems self-evident, said Stallman, “you wouldn’t know it from the agency’s spin machine.”
For more information on the Clean Water Act, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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