"Agriculture: Court Rejects Bush Rule Exempting CAFOs From Reporting"

"In a win for environmentalists, a federal court [Tuesday] tossed a George W. Bush-era rule exempting animal feeding operations from certain pollution reporting requirements.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed with green groups that lawmakers never intended to give U.S. EPA the authority to exclude those operations.

Congress didn't "give the agency carte blanche to ignore the statute whenever it decides the reporting requirements aren't worth the trouble," Judge Stephen Williams, a Reagan appointee, wrote for the court.

The court also found that manure storage at livestock operations poses more than a "theoretical" risk to public health."

Amanda Reilly reports for Greenwire April 11, 2017.