Posted September 23, 2014
The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has decided to not appeal the key federal
ruling in favor of Lois Alt, a West Virginia farmer, according to an American
Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) release available here.
A previous blog post on the case is available here.
In October
2013, the U.S. Court for the Northern District of West Virginia earlier ruled
in favor of farmer Lois Alt. The court rejected EPA’s contention that the “Clean
Water Act regulates ordinary stormwater runoff from the farmyard
(non-production areas) at large livestock or poultry farms.”
A federal
court has never addressed the question of stormwater runoff from farms so the
ruling carries implication for tens of thousands of poultry and livestock
farms. EPA’s “voluntary dismissal” is most likely the result of the agency’s
desire to avoid a loss in the appellate court. The appeal could still move
forward if any of the five environmental groups that intervened in support of
EPA wish to move forward without the government.
“EPA knows
its effort to regulate perfectly well-run farms cannot withstand legal
scrutiny, and the agency doesn’t quite know how to deal with that,” AFBF
President Bob Stallman said. Both AFBF and the West Virginia Farm Bureau joined
the suit on the side of Alt. “Apparently, the agency would rather move on and
continue pursuing its regulatory agenda farm-to-farm, but not defend it in
court.” Although EPA’s motivation seems self-evident, said Stallman, “you
wouldn’t know it from the agency’s spin machine.”
For more information on the Clean Water Act, please visit
the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
