Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
According to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, the agricultural sector is
“the leading contributor to identified water
quality impairments in the nation's rivers
and streams, lakes, ponds, and reservoirs.”
In particular, the agency has noted that
water quality concerns are most pronounced
in areas “where crops are intensively
cultivated and where livestock operations
are concentrated.”
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to coast. Just a few examples: In 2003, California's Chino basin
spent more than $1 million to remove nitrates, which can cause
methemoglobinemia, or “blue baby syndrome,” from its drinking
water, and the source was found to be in the many local dairies and
their abundant quantities of manure. From 1995 to 1998, factory
farms were responsible for 1,000 “spills” of liquefied manure or
other instances of pollution in ten states. When these cesspools
leak, they can poison surface and groundwater, and cause mas-
sive fish kills. In one incident, more than 20 million gallons of waste
spilled from a manure lagoon on a North Carolina pig factory farm
into a nearby river, causing a massive fish kill. In 2005, a manure la-
goon at an upstate New York dairy farm burst, polluting the nearby
Black River with millions of gallons of manure and killing more than
375,000 fish. In Oklahoma, between 2006 and 2007, the EPA lev-
ied more than $7 million in fines against companies—primarily fac-
tory farms—in the state. Said an EPA director: “If the waste from
those facilities . . . [is not] managed properly, you get significant
nutrient problems in ground and surface water.”
The USDA has found farmed bird production facilities—poultry
factory farms—to produce more than half of all of farmed animal
