EPA Orders Louisiana Poultry Farms to Stop Discharging

News release from EPA Region 6:

EPA Orders Louisiana Poultry Farms to Stop Discharging

(DALLAS – February 10, 2012) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued cease and desist administrative orders to two chicken broiler facilities in Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, for discharging chicken litter into a tributary of the Dugdemona River.

The Mike Reeves 1 and Beaver Creek Farm chicken broiler facilities are concentrated animal feeding operations located approximately four miles east of Arcadia on the south side of U.S. Highway 80, Lincoln Parish. The broiler facilities have been ordered to immediately stop all discharges of pollutants into waters of the United States.

“We expect poultry farms to put food on our tables, not waste into our rivers,” said EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz. “Owners and operators of animal feeding operations have a responsibility to comply with the law.”

On January 24 and 25, 2012, the EPA inspected the facilities and found unauthorized discharges of pollutants from chicken litter storage piles to an unnamed tributary of the Dugdemona River.

As a result of the inspection, the owners and operators of the Mike Reeves 1 and Beaver Creek Farm chicken broiler facilities have been ordered to immediately take action to stop all discharges of pollutants from their facilities’ chicken litter storage piles. Within 30 days they must submit to EPA and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) a certified summary, including photographs, that document the unauthorized discharges have been stopped.

More about activities in EPA Region 6 is available at http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/region6.html

EPA audio file is available at http://www.epa.gov/region6/6xa/podcast/feb2012.html

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