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EPA releases draft air emission model for dairy farms
By Kyle K. Weldon and Jim D. Bradbury
James D. Bradbury, PLLC
For the past 20 years, uncertainty regarding emissions from animal feeding operations has confounded regulators and served to hinder environmental groups who seek to use regulations as a sword against animal agriculture. After years of monitoring, measuring and peer reviewed studies, this “uncertainty” may be changing.
On July 14, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released preliminary draft air emission models for estimating ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and particulate matter emissions from barns and lagoons on dairy farms. The dairy models, along with models for swine and poultry operations, are products of the National Air Emission Monitoring Study (NAEMS), a nationwide research project intended to gather air emission data from animal feeding operations. The research for NAEMS was funded by the EPA’s 2005 Air Compliance Agreement, which allowed participating animal feeding operations to pay a civil penalty in exchange for certain immunity from suit from the EPA for potential air emission violations.
The NAEMS research began in 2007 and consisted of 25 monitoring sites (including dairy, swine and poultry (layer and broiler) operations) located in 10 different states. Dairy operations in California, Indiana, New York, Texas, Washington State and Wisconsin were part of the study. With EPA oversight, several universities conducted the NAEMS research, studying and measuring the emissions of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds from barns and manure storage facilities at the selected locations for a two-year period. The EPA had initially planned to begin publishing emission estimating methodologies by 2009; however, limits in the NAEMS data and extensive feedback from the EPA’s Science Advisory Board, among other factors, caused long delays. Over 15 years later, the emission models from these studies have now been released for dairy farms.
Now that these preliminary draft models have been released, the EPA intends to revise and improve the models for each animal species. Once all models have been reviewed and revised, the EPA will release these models for a “formal public comment period,” which is expected to take place in mid-2023. The EPA’s current timeline for finalizing the emission models is late-2023. Once the models are finalized, the EPA plans for the models to be used by the animal feeding operations that participated in the 2005 Air Compliance Agreement (and likely other animal feeding operations), in order to self-determine if their emissions trigger permitting requirements. However, since 2005, legislation and rulemaking have exempted the reporting requirements under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act – the two current regulations that require reporting of the emissions studied by NAEMS.
Considering the track record of NAEMS, it is difficult to know how accurate the EPA’s estimates are regarding when it will actually start to implement the use of these models. In the meantime, even though currently exempt, the industry will need to continue to be involved in providing comments and feedback regarding the current and future draft models.