Appeal Pushes for Transparency in Animal Agriculture Emissions
By: Waterkeeper Alliance
Waterkeeper Alliance and a coalition of conservation and community organizations have filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, challenging a federal court ruling that upheld an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule exempting animal factory farms from reporting hazardous air emissions.
The groups argue that the rule unlawfully exempts industrial livestock and poultry operations from disclosing releases of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, as required by the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). These toxic chemicals, emitted from concentrated animal waste, have been linked to serious health issues, including respiratory disease, headaches, nausea, and even death.
A recent study found that air pollution from the livestock industry, including these emissions, causes more than 12,700 fatalities in the United States each year. That is more than the number of deaths attributed to air pollution from coal-fired power plants. Despite well-documented health risks and clear legal requirements, factory farm emissions have never been consistently reported to the public.
“People have a right to know when large-scale animal feeding operations are releasing hazardous air pollution near where they live, work, or their kids go to school,” Kelly Hunter Foster, Senior Attorney at Waterkeeper Alliance. “EPA has a responsibility under EPCRA to ensure that information is disclosed to the public. Its mandate is to protect human health and the environment, not to create loopholes that allow polluters to hide the truth and put communities and ecosystems at risk.”
The appeal challenges an EPA rule that exceeded the agency’s authority by extending a Congressional exemption originally passed under the Fair Agricultural Reporting Method (FARM) Act. While the FARM Act exempted factory farms from reporting under the Superfund law — formally known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) — the agency went a step further by extending that exemption to EPCRA. As a result, communities, local emergency planners, and local emergency responders were left without access to vital information needed to protect public health.
Since at least 2008, Waterkeeper Alliance and partners have actively opposed EPA’s repeated efforts to allow industrial animal feeding operations (AFOs) to avoid reporting toxic air emissions under EPCRA and other federal laws. After years of litigation, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017 overturned EPA’s 2008 rule that established reporting exemptions under CERCLA and EPCRA. Another lawsuit was filed against the agency in 2019 for unlawfully exempting factory farms from critical pollution-reporting requirements under EPCRA. Last year, they submitted detailed comments urging EPA to require AFOs to comply with EPCRA and disclose hazardous emissions such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. Although the agency initially promised to revise its exemption, it has since backtracked, prompting new legal action to compel full reporting and accountability from these polluters.
EarthJustice is representing the appellates, including: Waterkeeper Alliance, Animal Legal Defense Fund, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Don’t Waste Arizona, Environmental Integrity Project, Food & Water Watch, Humane World for Animals (formerly, the Humane Society of the United States), Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help, Sierra Club, and Sound Rivers. Animal Legal Defense Fund and Food & Water Watch are also being represented by in-house counsel.
Quote List:
Christine Ball-Blakely, Senior Staff Attorney at Animal Legal Defense Fund, said:
“Factory farm air pollution sickens and kills those forced to breathe it. Instead of empowering communities to protect themselves from this pollution, as the law requires, the EPA under the Trump administration is trying to bury the data that reveals how dangerous factory farming is to the communities it occupies. Information is power, and the law is clear: communities are entitled to both.”
Ryan Maher, Attorney at Center for Biological Diversity, said:
“The owners of industrial factory farms don’t want to alert nearby communities about releases of dangerous gases like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide because they don’t want to be held responsible for the brain and lung damage and deaths their emissions can cause. Trump’s EPA would rather pretend no harm is being done than stand up and defy the wishes of the president’s wealthy industry benefactors.”
George Kimbrell, Legal Director of the Center for Food Safety, said:
“Americans have a fundamental right to know about these hazards to their health which they are being unlawfully kept in the dark about. Far from ‘Making America Healthy Again,’ this is yet another betrayal of the public and especially farming communities.”
Alexis Andiman, Senior Attorney at Earthjustice, said:
“Everyone deserves to breathe clean air, and the federal government shouldn’t be in the business of hiding information people need to keep their families safe. But EPA allows industrial animal factories to keep their pollution secret, even though it admits that this pollution poses serious health risks, most often borne by people of color, people with low incomes, and children.”
Abel Russ, Senior Attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project, said:
“This is about basic fairness. Any other industry emitting hazardous pollution would have to disclose that information to the public. Industrial meat production facilities pose a serious threat to public health. Why does EPA continue to let this industry off the hook?”
Tarah Heinzen, Legal Director at Food & Water Watch, said:
“Trump’s EPA is suppressing critical pollution data required to keep frontline communities safe and hold polluters accountable. Factory farms emit dangerous amounts of hazardous chemicals — willful ignorance of the data will not change the truth. The Trump Administration’s see no evil approach to pollution will not stand in court.”
Rebecca Cary, Managing Attorney for Humane World for Animals, said:
“EPA is unlawfully hiding hazardous air emissions produced by factory farms. Not only does this industry disregard the most basic needs of animals in confinement, but it also disregards the health of people living in farming communities across the country, and the EPA should not allow factory farms to hide their harmful effects.”