COLUMBUS – The Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Livestock Environmental Permitting Program is up and running.
And the first thing Ohio Agriculture Director Fred L. Dailey did was revoke Buckeye Egg Farm’s 12 operating permits and deny 11 of the farm’s pending Permit to Install applications.
The ag department assumed permitting authority for large-scale livestock and poultry farms from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Aug. 19.
Dailey sent a Notice of Opportunity for Hearing to Buckeye Egg Farm outlining his intentions.
“This farm has a substantial history of compliance problems,” Dailey said. “Buckeye Egg Farm’s environmental history does not exemplify the high standard we set for farm owners or managers in this state.”
On April 22, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Christopher Jones issued a proposal to revoke wastewater permits the farm needs to legally operate its egg production facilities. The same day, Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery filed a ninth set of contempt charges against the farm for failure to comply with court-ordered correction actions.
The ag department’s actions continue the state’s efforts to shut down the egg farm.
Department inspections of this farm and the other 119 permitted livestock and poultry farms are under way.
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Livestock permitting regs
officially under ODA wing
COLUMBUS – The Ohio Department of Agriculture officially took the reigns of the state’s livestock permitting program from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Aug. 19.
The department’s Livestock Environmental permitting Program will now regulate Ohio’s largest livestock and poultry farms – those with more than 1,000 animal units.
Over the next two years, currently permitted farms will be inspected to verify they are operating under their existing permit. These operations must also develop a manure management plan, an insect and rodent control plan and a mortality management plan. Once completed, the farms will receive a five-year Review Compliance Certificate. After five years, they must apply for a renewable permit to continue.
All new livestock or poultry operations with more than 1,000 animal units must now apply to the department for a Permit to Install and Permit to Operate.
Other farms – regardless of size – may be required to get a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit if it has problems related to discharging or runoff of manure or wastewater. It’s confusing, but the Ohio EPA still maintains permitting authority for the NPDES permits, although the ag department will be asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for that authority, Dailey said.
