EPA to ease wastewater regs on meat processing plants

Over the Labor Day weekend, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it was going to ease wastewater regulations on meat processing plants.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced a final action plan that imposes no additional discharge regulations on meat and poultry processing facilities in an announcement at Christensen Farms in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. In the EPA’s news release, it said it was another Trump administration successful effort to support a lower cost of living for American families and American farmers while protecting human health and the environment.

Last amended in 2004, the meat and poultry Effluent Limitation Guidelines currently apply to about 180 of the estimated 5,300 meat and poultry facilities nationwide, according to Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts in a news release. EPA estimated between 845 and 1,620 facilities would be subject to and incur costs should the proposed ELGs become final. 

To protect small and medium-sized meat and poultry processors most likely affected by these changes, the Meat Institute joined the Meat and Poultry Products Industry Coalition, which is made up of the Meat Institute, National Chicken Council, National Pork Producers Council, National Turkey Federation, North American Renderers Association, and the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association.

“This important decision by Administrator Zeldin ends a regulatory disaster that would have forced meat processing facilities to close, causing food prices to go up and hardship for livestock and poultry producers,” Potts said.

Zeldin was joined by Christensen Farms CEO Greg Howard and U.S. Reps. Brad Finstad and Michelle Fischbach, both Republicans, for a tour of the mill and farm following the announcement. The family-owned and operated facility oversees 145,000 sows across 44 farms creating more than 1,000 local jobs. Finstad is a member of the House Agriculture Committee. Informed by concerns expressed in public comments received on the proposed rule and a comprehensive review of the 2024 proposal, the agency has decided not to move forward with additional, burdensome Effluent Limitation Guidelines or pretreatment standards for this industry and withdrew rule citing that without action it would add to compliance costs and ultimately higher prices to consumers.

The EPA said the current regulations are sufficient to protect the environment.

“The Powering the Great American Comeback initiative is about supporting Americans by reducing the cost of living and advancing economic growth while protecting our nation’s air, land, and water,” Zeldin said. “For the past four years, people in this country experienced the worst inflation in nearly five decades. EPA is saving billions of dollars in costs the American people would otherwise see in the prices of the meat and poultry they buy at the grocery store while ensuring the protection of human health and the environment.”

The action on the Meat and Poultry Processing Rule received a thumbs-up from farm group that praised what they called a commonsense approach that will benefit farmers and ranchers, too.

“As proposed by the previous administration, this rule—which provides no environmental benefits—would have been devastating to small- and medium-sized meat processors across the country and the livestock farmers who rely on them as markets for their animals,” said National Pork Producers Council President Duane Stateler. “EPA’s action today will save not only the nearly 100 local meat processors that EPA previously identified would have to close down but also the thousands of family farmers who rely on them to stay in livestock production, and it will help ensure affordable, nutritious American-grown pork can continue to be served on dinner tables across the country.”

The decision closes the book on a nearly two-year comment and consideration process in which the National Pork Producers Council and other stakeholders have worked with EPA to better inform the agency’s decision and preempt unnecessary harm. The more-stringent permitting guidelines under CWA would have packed a significant punch for meat processors, requiring them to upgrade facilities and install costly new wastewater treatment technologies, impacting meat and poultry packing and processing plants nationwide. EPA’s own internal analysis showed that dozens of facilities, likely small and medium-sized, would be unable to afford these changes and shut down. Overall, the industry would have realized additional costs estimated at greater than $1 billion a year.

EPA first enacted the Meat and Poultry Products Effluent Guidelines and Standards in 1974 and amended the regulation, which covers wastewater directly discharged by processing facilities, in 2004. The proposed amendment would have established more stringent technological requirements for controlling discharges from processors and significantly increased the scope of plants that were covered by the rules.

While the agricultural industry and the meat and poultry processing sectors support clean water efforts, EPA found these expansions were unnecessary. NPPC appreciates EPA taking no action on the proposal, which would have disrupted packing capacity and livestock markets, in turn inflicting additional financial harm on producers and leading to further industry concentration and the loss of independent farmers.

Several other major farm organizations also praised the decision.

“Farmers and ranchers rely on processers to help get meat and poultry to America’s dinner tables in a way that protects our natural resources,” said American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall. “Heavy-handed regulations that would have created serious obstacles in processing would ultimately hurt the farmers raising the meat and poultry we enjoy. Farm Bureau appreciates EPA’s reasoned approach to guidelines for meat and poultry processing facilities that protects our natural resources and our stable food supply.” 

“The COVID-19 pandemic made clear the need for additional livestock processing capacity across the country,” said National Cattlemen’s Beef Association President Buck Wehrbein. “NCBA appreciates continued efforts by the administration, including EPA, to support small and regional meat processors. Costly and resource-intensive regulatory standards limit the ability of small meat processors to remain in business. We appreciate EPA’s decision to maintain existing Clean Water Act standards.”

Dave Bergmeier can be reached at 620-227-1822 or [email protected].