Washington - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it would regulate factory farms with vast numbers of cattle, pigs and chickens that produce millions of tons of manure each year.
Animal-waste spills by large livestock farms have been blamed by environmentalists for fish kills, groundwater pollution, smelly air and even some human illnesses.
A draft plan issued by the EPA on Thursday called for "aggressive enforcement" of Clean Water Act permit requirements for an estimated 450,000 animal-feeding operations in the United States.
As part of the draft plan, the EPA said it would revise national environmental guidelines for allowable levels of waste from chicken and pig farms by December 2001 and guidelines for cattle and dairy farms by December 2002.
Livestock groups acknowledge that the size of factory farms makes manure management critical but they have complained about the patchwork of local, state and federal regulations governing the industry.
"Runoff from animal feeding operations in particular has been associated with threats to human health and the environment," EPA Administrator Carol Browner said.
Applying the Clean Water Act to large farms is part of a Clinton administration plan announced last month to clean up rivers and lakes that have excessive amounts of nitrogen and other nutrients.
Animal waste was linked to last year's outbreak of toxic micro-organisms in rivers that feed the Chesapeake Bay and to an area known as the "Dead Zone" in the Gulf of Mexico.
A recent study by Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, found that U.S. farm animals produced 1.37 billion tons of waste annually -- about 130 times the amount generated by humans. A 50,000-acre pig farm being built in Utah could produce more waste than the city of Los Angeles, the study said.
On large hog farms, animals are typically kept in buildings with slotted floors and the manure is flushed into a lagoon for storage until it is used as fertilizer. Large chicken farms spread wood shavings on the floor to absorb bird droppings, and that material is also used as fertilizer.
Although farmers have long recycled manure by spraying it as fertilizer on fields, environmentalists worry that the scale of factory farms produces more waste than can be safely spread over cropland.
The Senate Agriculture committee will hold a hearing next month on Harkin's proposed bill to require farmers to submit a manure management plan to the U.S. Agriculture Department.
Environmentalists praised the EPA action but demanded that the agency impose a moratorium on additional large livestock farms until the new regulations are finalized.
"The urgency of a national moratorium is magnified since under this strategy it will take years to complete the permitting job and develop new regulations," said Hank Graddy, head of the Sierra Club's committee on feedlots.
But some farm groups complained that varying conditions throughout the nation mean EPA cannot regulate all farms.
"It ought to be done on a state by state basis, not nationally ... One size fits all will not work," said Dean Kleckner, president of the American Farm Bureau.
The pig, cattle and chicken industries, which have been in talks with EPA for a year over animal waste issues, said they would work with the agency.
"We've really shifted our thinking in the pork industry, and our farmers want to know what they need to do to meet environmental regulations," said Deb Atwood, a lobbyist with the National Pork Producers Council. "The key thing is that our members want consistency."
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