"Air Pollution: Audit Slams Flagging EPA Bid To Curb Farm Emissions"

"More than a decade after agreeing to keep tabs on emissions from large-scale animal feedlots, U.S. EPA isn't close to getting the job done, the agency's inspector general said in a new report, which found the delay is undercutting the broader effort to regulate pollution from that sector.

As of this spring, EPA had not published any emissions estimating methodologies for such 'animal feeding operations' and still had no work plan or timetable for completing them, according to the report, released yesterday by Inspector General Arthur Elkins' office.

The result: Individual operations, which can produce significant amounts of ammonia and other hazardous air pollutants, haven't come up with the data needed to determine whether they should put pollution controls in place or report their emissions to emergency responders, the report said. And until EPA officials finish work on the estimating methods, they are refusing to act on citizen petitions to regulate emissions from animal feeding operations, often known as AFOs, on the grounds that the methods 'are needed to inform the agency's decision-making,' the report said."

Sean Reilly reports for Greenwire September 20, 2017.