New York Times does it again; this time it's feedlot pollution

The New York Times and reporter Charles Duhigg have done it again – produced a compelling article on water quality – this time focused on pollution from large scale animal feedlot operations. See the September 17th article Health Ills Abound as Farm Runoff Fouls Wells

Much of the article focuses on examples form the Midwest, but scroll down and watch the video called The Danger of Livestock Waste to hear how the problem is playing out in Idaho.

The heart of the matter? The Clean Water Act is not successfully protecting people or wildlife from pollution generated by enormous livestock production facilities. The article states:

To address this problem, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has created special rules for the biggest farms, like those with at least 700 cows.

But thousands of large animal feedlots that should be regulated by those rules are effectively ignored because farmers never file paperwork, E.P.A. officials say.

And regulations passed during the administration of President George W. Bush allow many of those farms to self-certify that they will not pollute, and thereby largely escape regulation.

For more on the environmental, health and social impacts of large feedlots, visit FactoryFarm.org or the Waterkeeper Alliance's Pure Farms, Pure Waters campaign.