The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to offer large livestock farms amnesty from lawsuits in exchange for participation in a study monitoring air emissions from feedlots and manure storage facilities.
Under the plan, large farms would pay $3,000 and allow the EPA to monitor air emissions for about two years. After completion of that study, producers would have to obtain local air emission permits and meet federal air quality standards.
The EPA says the plan would bring farms into compliance with the Clean Water Act, while opponents charge it would just be letting them off the hook.