Groups Condemn Permitting Legislation’s Fast-Track For Industrial Agriculture Pollution
By: Waterkeeper Alliance
As the U.S. Senate prepares for a procedural vote today on whether to advance consideration of the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, Waterkeeper Alliance has joined dozens of environmental, farmer, and community groups in urging congressional leaders to oppose the anti-environmental permitting legislation.
“Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and corporate slaughterhouses are major sources of water pollution, threatening drinking water, fisheries, and recreational waters nationwide,” said Kelly Hunter Foster, Waterkeeper Alliance Senior Attorney. “Rather than weaken environmental laws to fast-track data center energy projects, we should fully implement protections like the federal Clean Water Act. It is reckless to weaken safeguards against industrial pollution for an industry that poses its own serious threats to our water resources and communities.”
In their letter to Congress, the groups warn that the legislation would exacerbate water pollution from industrial agriculture, undermine effective oversight of industrial agriculture polluters, and fast-track industry expansion. Agriculture is the nation’s leading polluter of rivers and lakes, and the groups warn that the legislation would further weaken already inadequate pollution controls by eliminating core Clean Water Act safeguards, narrowing environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act, and tying regulators’ hands.
Today’s coalition letter is part of Waterkeeper Alliance’s broader, ongoing effort to oppose the legislation and protect clean water. On October 30, Waterkeeper Alliance sent a separate letter to Congress outlining its concerns about the bill. The organization is also mobilizing Waterkeeper groups across the country to engage their communities and meet with congressional representatives. An action alert urging opposition to the legislation has garnered thousands of signatures, and the Alliance continues to work with environmental and community organizations nationwide to raise awareness about the legislation’s potential consequences.
This latest coalition letter is led by Waterkeeper Alliance, Food & Water Watch, Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment, Center for Food Safety, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and National Family Farm Coalition.
Environmental Groups Warn of Consequences for Clean Water and Rural Communities
Food & Water Watch Food Policy Director Rebecca Wolf said: “This permitting legislation is a giveaway to America’s most polluting industries. By loosening bedrock environmental laws, this bill will fast-track toxic industrial agriculture pollution nationwide. Factory farms are already wreaking havoc on our health, our communities and our water — this would make it much worse. Congress must stop this cynical industry ploy.”
Patty Lovera of the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment said: “For decades, communities across the country have suffered with the environmental and public health impacts allowed under the ineffective permitting system for factory farms. Creating even more loopholes for corporate-controlled factory farms under the guise of permitting reform is the wrong approach.”
Center for Food Safety Legislative and Policy Coordinator Reagan Ferris said: “While advertised as a means of increasing access to cheap energy and job opportunities, BAAJA would ultimately benefit major polluters like fossil fuel developers and factory farm operators at the expense of the vulnerable communities, individuals, and species. Currently, states and Tribes have the right to oppose or place conditions on federal pollutant discharge permits that could impact their territory’s water quality. Under BAAJA, they would only be allowed to place conditions that would be ‘least burdensome,’ for the permit holder. Protecting clean water is not a burden, it is an essential for life itself.”
Ben Lilliston, Director of Climate and Rural Strategies at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy said: “Rural communities around the country are facing the impacts of air and water pollution tied to large-scale factory farms – and these issues surfaced in the elections last week across many states. BAAJA threatens to weaken bedrock environmental protections that safeguard rural communities, while it could lock in significant agriculture greenhouse gas emissions into the future.”
Tim Gibbons with the National Family Farm Coalition said: “Our federal government should be strengthening rules to protect our land, water, natural resources and property rights from corporate industrial livestock operations, not weakening them. Family farmers depend on the Clean Water Act to protect the health of their families, their communities, and the wells and waterways they and their livestock depend on for safe drinking water. Our elected Representatives should dismiss the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA) of 2026 that threatens those protections.”