AMWA Calls on Senate to Reject CERCLA Manure Exemption

The Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) today joined the American Water Works Association (AWWA) in calling on the United States Senate to reject attempts to exempt manure discharged by consolidated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) from the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA).

In a letter sent to all one hundred members of the Senate, AMWA and AWWA warned that a blanket exemption for animal manure from CERCLA regulation would result in increased pollution of America’s drinking water by known contaminants such as phosphorus, which is commonly found in animal manure.  The exemption would also unfairly shift the burden of cleanup costs from the polluter to local water system ratepayers – precisely what CERCLA was intended to prevent.

“Enactment of this measure would result in the increased discharge of phosphorus and other CERCLA-regulated contaminants into water supplies, compromising the quality of communities’ drinking water,” the letter said.  “Furthermore, if a broad exemption for manure were to be added to CERCLA, communities would be precluded from cost recovery for pollution beyond the normal application of fertilizer currently permitted under CERCLA.  This would unfairly shift the burden of clean up from the polluter to local ratepayers.”  A copy of the letter is attached.

AMWA’s letter comes several days after Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) offered an amendment to H.R. 6, the CLEAN Energy Act, that would preclude animal manure (defined as “digestive emissions, feces, urine, urea, and other excrement from livestock”) and its byproducts from being considered a “hazardous substance” or a “pollutant or contaminant” under the law.  While her colleagues in the Senate wisely blocked the amendment, Sen. Lincoln has also introduced the measure as a stand-alone bill (S. 807) and there is speculation that the proposal could be offered as an amendment when the Senate considers the Farm Bill reauthorization later this year.

“CERCLA is quite clear,” said AWMA Executive Director Diane VanDe Hei.  “Congress expects polluters to be held responsible for contaminants they release into the environment.  A blanket exemption for animal manure would harm America’s drinking water supplies, raise prices for water system ratepayers and allow CAFOs to release dangerous pollutants without consequence.”

AMWA is an organization representing the largest publicly owned drinking water systems in the U.S., with a membership that serves more than 127 million Americans with drinking water from Alaska to Puerto Rico.