The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing tightened water discharge limits for some meat and poultry processing plants around the country, potentially forcing a few facilities to shut down.
A preferred option laid out by the agency would tighten existing nitrogen limits and set the first phosphorus standard for plants that discharge directly into rivers and other bodies considered waters of the U.S.
The plan also would set the first pretreatment standards – targeted to oil and grease, total suspended solids and biochemical oxygen demand – for facilities that discharge into sewers and public treatment systems.
EPA says its preferred regulatory plan would apply to about 850 of the nation's 5,055 meat and poultry processing plants.
“The proposed rule would help protect the nation’s vital water resources, which support safe drinking water, agriculture, industry, recreation activities, and thriving communities, through the implementation of affordable and available wastewater treatment technologies,” EPA says in a summary of the proposal.
EPA estimated the limits under the preferred option could lead to 16 plant closures. The agency said production from those plants would likely be picked up by other facilities, eventually softening the industry impact.
“Employment loss due to facility closures is considered transitory as some of the production that occurred at these facilities will quickly move to other facilities with spare capacity,” the agency notes in the proposed rule.
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“Eventually new and expanding existing facilities will take on much of the remaining production that would have occurred at the closed facilities. As these shifts in production occur so too will employment opportunities.”
Other options EPA is considering would expand the pollution limits to additional plants and set pretreatment standards for nitrogen and phosphorus for some facilities that discharge into sewers and treatment plants.
The agency says meat and poultry processing is one of the largest sources of industrial nutrient pollution, which includes nitrogen and phosphorus.
EPA will hold hearings on the proposed rule Jan. 24 and Jan. 31.
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