Attorneys for the National Pork Producers Council represented a coalition of livestock and agriculture groups Thursday at oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco in a case brought by activist groups seeking to force radical changes into how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.

Earlier this year, a large number of national and state activist groups led by Food & Water Watch, the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, and the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, filed a lawsuit against the EPA over its denial of a petition demanding EPA to modify its regulations to require CAFOs to obtain federal permits to operate.

The groups want the so-called CAFO Rule to presume pigs and other livestock and poultry farmers are discharging into Waters of the United States in violation of the Clean Water Act. They asked the California-based Ninth Circuit to remove application of the long-established and congressionally developed exclusion for agricultural storm water from animal feeding operations and instead require all CAFOs to either obtain CWA discharge permits or provide evidence they are not discharging into a WOTUS.

Such a ruling would be at odds with decisions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Those courts in 2005 and 2010, respectively, found that CAFOs do not have a duty to apply for a discharge permit because the CWA covers only actual discharges, not potential discharges.

NPPC, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the U.S. Poultry and Egg Federation and the United Egg Producers intervened in the litigation in defense of EPA and the long-standing regulations that have shaped modern livestock and poultry farming.

NPPC notes the U.S. pork industry has long been the progressive leader in environmental protection and sustainability of protein production. In addition to continuing a close working relationship with federal, state and local regulators, producers have been the leaders in developing successful practices and technologies to maximizing the efficient use of valuable manure resources to continuously improve on-farm performance and sustainability. At the same time, NPPC has successfully defended against the continued attacks by eco-activists to undermine food production in this country.

In the latest Capital Update, NPPC states, "if successful, the activists’ lawsuit would upend livestock environmental regulations around the country, causing millions of dollars of litigation, fines and challenges to individual hog farmers and setting the industry back decades."