With the recent passage of the Fair Agricultural Reporting Method (FARM) Act, Congress restored common sense to a debate spanning almost two decades.
CERCLA and ammonia emissions
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) requires a facility to report the emission of hazardous substances if the facility exceeds a daily threshold established for said substance. For ammonia, the threshold is 100 pounds. Following a petition in 2005 submitted by the poultry industry, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized an exemption for reporting the emission of ammonia generated on farms from the requirements outlined in CERCLA.
EPA’s rationale for the exemption was simple. Air ammonia emissions generated from the breakdown of manure do not require an emergency response: the principal intention of the emission reporting provision under CERCLA. Various activist groups did not agree with the 2008 exemption and challenged it in court.
A legal challenge
For some time, the court challenge paused while a study collected data potentially leading to providing farmers with a methodology to estimate emissions generated on their farm. This was meant to provide farmers with some certainty they were exceeding the reporting quantity threshold. The researchers eventually realized the many variables contributing to the generation of ammonia – resulting from the chemical, physical and biological breakdown of manure – made it nearly impossible to develop a methodology to estimate emissions.
In 2015, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals allowed the challenge to resume and subsequently ruled in April 2017 that Congress did not give EPA the authority to provide reporting exemptions under the CERCLA statute. Fortunately, Congress recognized EPA’s sound reasoning for the attempted 2008 exemption. This led it to pass a bi-partisan bill providing a CERCLA reporting exemption.
According to an EPA fact sheet on the FARM Act, the provision’s narrow exemption “is tied to the nature or manner of these releases rather than to a specific substance.” The reporting exemption only applies to substances generated from animal waste.
Cheers to Congress
Congress’ actions, and the EPA’s support, showed a commendable level of practicality. By providing an exemption from CERCLA reporting, Congress removed a reporting requirement that was merely an exercise in paperwork. It also ended distractions, and an unnecessary workload, for emergency responders so they can focus on truly important incidents that truly require their attention.
