09/24/07 Confined Animal Feeding Operations

Confined Animal Operations. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The Oregon Department of Agriculture wants to clear up some apparent misunderstandings about one of its programs that regulates livestock facilities throughout the state. They are called Confined Animal Feeding Operations- CAFOs for short. They include feedlots, ranches, dairies, poultry operations, hog farms and other operations that have the potential to generate a lot of animal manure. One myth about CAFOs is they receive little or no regulation and oversight in Oregon. Not true, says Wym Matthews, manager of the Oregon Department of Agriculture's CAFO Program: MATTHEWS: There's quite a bit of work that a CAFO has to do for the department through this program to ensure they are in compliance with the Federal Clean Water Act for surface and groundwater issues in Oregon. And there is quite a bit of oversight that the department holds over these facilities. ODA inspects CAFOs at least once a year and ensures that they have an animal waste management plan in place before they can get a permit. Another myth is that a high number of large CAFOs- often referred to as factory farms- are flocking to the state because of perceived lax regulation. Matthews says ODA has only received three applications this year so far, and two of them are to expand existing facilities. MATTHEWS: So three applications in the last eight months out of a total of about 590 permitted folks looks like less than one percent of our total. I guess I would call that less than a rush. The bottom line is that existing law enforced by ODA is designed to ensure that water quality is protected in Oregon from animal waste that might be coming from CAFOs. It appears the program is working. Matthews says a facility cannot receive a CAFO permit from ODA until it goes through a rigorous submission of an application and review by the agency. MATTHEWS: They have to have an animal waste management plan that tells the department how much waste they are going to generate, what they are going to do with it, how they are going to store it, how they are going to utilize it, and looking at that whole system to make sure they are not going to create pollution. Matthews says ODA provides oversight and regulation of Confined Animal Feeding Operations. MATTHEWS: We try to inspect each facility at least once every ten months on a routine inspection. When there are issues at the facility, we'll write them up- different notices of non-compliance. Then generate follow-up inspections to make sure they corrected the problem. If folks have ongoing problems and don't correct them, we escalate our compliance to the point of fines. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.