The American Farm
Bureau Federation today asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District
of West Virginia to determine that livestock and poultry farmers do not need
Clean Water Act discharge permits for ordinary stormwater runoff from their
farmyards. The joint motion, filed by AFBF, West Virginia Farm Bureau and West
Virginia poultry farmer Lois Alt, would garner a big win for farmers nationwide
if the court rules in their favor.
Today’s motion
comes on the heels of the court’s April decision rejecting efforts by the
Environmental Protection Agency to dismiss Alt’s case in its entirety in order
to avoid defending its legal position in court. This lawsuit began in 2012 when
Alt challenged an EPA order demanding that she obtain a Clean Water Act
discharge permit for ordinary stormwater runoff from her farmyard or face
$37,500 in fines each time the stormwater came into contact with dust, feathers
or small amounts of manure on the ground outside her poultry houses as a result
of normal farming operations. Despite EPA’s withdrawal of the Alt order six
weeks before the legal briefing was scheduled to commence, the court agreed
with Farm Bureau and Alt that the case should go forward to clarify whether, as
EPA contends, discharge permits are required for “ordinary precipitation runoff
from a typical farmyard.” ....To Read More.....
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