The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Friday it is considering requiring concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to report releases of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), according to the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC).
The agency says that H2S is harmful to human health and the environment and must be reported to the Toxics Release Inventory under the Emergency Planning & Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA).
This reporting requirement could produce stricter rules on releases of H2S under the Clean Air Act, including a mandate that agricultural facilities adopt new emissions mitigation technologies.
NPPC has filed a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in Wisconsin challenging an EPA rule requiring some pork producers to report air emissions from their farms under EPCRA, which has an exemption for agriculture.
NPPC has charged that EPA has failed to set up an adequate system for receipt of emissions reports from producers.
Meanwhile, the pork industry is also anticipating the results of the National Air Emissions Monitoring Study of emissions from farms.