Yes. Meat and poultry slaughterhouses, processors, and independent renderers (together referred to as Meat and Poultry Processors or MPP) that directly discharge wastewater to waters of the U.S. are point sources under the Clean Water Act and must obtain permits established by the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).[1] Direct dischargers are subject to effluent limitations (ELGs) as set out in their NPDES permits.[2]
The MPP facilities that indirectly discharge by sending their wastewater to publicly owned treatment works (POTW) are also subject to regulation under a component of the NPDES program called the National Pretreatment Program, which requires MPP facilities to obtain permits to discharge wastewater to publicly owned treatment works (POTW).[3] The program is designed to protect POTW infrastructure because “certain industrial discharge practices can interfere with the operation of POTWs, leading to the discharge of untreated or inadequately treated wastewater into rivers, lakes, and other waters of the United States.”[4] Most of the responsibility for implementation and enforcement of the National Pretreatment Program rests on local municipalities.[5]
Currently, the ELGs established by the EPA to MPP facilities apply only to direct dischargers.[6] However, indirect dischargers are subject “to any local limits established by the control authority under the general pretreatment regulations.”[7]
40 CFR § 432.1 General Applicability, Meat and Poultry Products Point Source Category [“This part applies to discharges of process wastewater to waters of the U.S. from facilities engaged in the slaughtering, dressing and packing of meat and poultry products for human consumption and/or animal food and feeds.”]
U.S. EPA (2023) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), NPDES Permit Limits. https://www.epa.gov/npdes/npdes-permit-limits
U.S. EPA (2024) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), National Pretreatment Program. https://www.epa.gov/npdes/national-pretreatment-program
U.S. EPA (2011) Introduction to the National Pretreatment Program, EPA-833-B-11-001, p. iii.
Introduction to the National Pretreatment Program, p. 2-4.
89 Fed Reg. 4474 (January 23, 2024) Proposed Rules/ Clean Water Act Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Meat and Poultry Products Point Source Category. [“EPA initially promulgated the MPP ELGs in 1974 and amended the regulation in 2004. It currently applies only to direct dischargers (those that discharge directly to a water of the United States), and only to about 150 of the 5,055 MPP facilities in the industry.” at p. 4475]
89 Fed Reg. 4474, p. 4487.
The EPA has records for 5,055 MPP facilities. Of these, 171 are direct dischargers (~3%) and 3,708 are indirect dischargers (~73%). The remaining facilities are “zero dischargers.”[1]
However, the agency estimates that “the MPP industry has between 7,000 and 8,000 facilities. Because no one data source collects information from all MPP facilities … the exact number is unclear.”[2]
89 Fed Reg. 4474 (January 23, 2024) Proposed Rules/ Clean Water Act Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Meat and Poultry Products Point Source Category, Table V-1 at p. 4481.
U.S. EPA (February 2022) Supporting Statement: US Environmental Protection Agency Meat and Poultry Products Industry Data Collection, p. 2. https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2022-03/mpp-icr-supporting-statement_feb-2022.pdf [“Facility names and addresses are often inconsistent and may change over time as ownership changes or addresses of record change. Based on the data evaluated to date, EPA estimates the population of MPP facilities to be between 7,000 and 8,000 facilities.” at p. 23]
Direct dischargers must comply with effluent limitations guidelines and standards (ELGs) established in their NPDES permits. These standards are developed on an industry-by-industry basis and are technology-based, meaning they are based on “the greatest possible pollutant reductions that are economically achievable for an industry.”[1]
Indirect dischargers, or MPP plants that send their wastewater to treatment plants, must comply with standards set out in the National Pretreatment Program in order to protect the treatment plants that may not have the technology or infrastructure to handle slaughterhouse waste.[2]
U.S. EPA (2024) Learn About Effluent Guidelines. https://www.epa.gov/eg/learn-about-effluent-guidelines
U.S. EPA (2023) Pretreatment Standards and Requirement – General and Specific Prohibitions https://www.epa.gov/npdes/pretreatment-standards-and-requirements-general-and-specific-prohibitions
Yes. The EPA breaks down the MPP industry into 3 general categories: a) Meat (livestock) slaughter and processing, b) Independent renderers, and c) Poultry slaughter and processing. Both meat and poultry are further broken down into 2 sizes: “Non-small” and “Small.” And each category may have different regulations depending on whether they are “existing” or “new” facilities.[1]
In 2004, the EPA revised its regulations to include additional limitations on certain pollutants (e.g., ammonia and nitrogen) for “non-small” meat and poultry slaughterhouses. But “small” livestock slaughter and processing operations are still subject to ELGs established in the mid-1970’s. And existing “small” poultry slaughterhouses are not subject to any ELG limitations at all.[2,3]
U.S. EPA (2004) Technical Development Document for the Final Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Meat and Poultry Products Point Source Category (40 CFR 432), EPA-821-R-04-011, p. 1-4.
69 Fed. Reg. 54476 (2004) Effluent Limitations Guidelines and New Source Performance Standards for the Meat and Poultry Products Point Source Category. [“non-small” refer to facilities that slaughter more than 50 million lbs. of animals each year and poultry facilities that slaughter more than 100 million lbs. per year. at p. 54488]
Note: A “small” hog facility would slaughter up to 173,000 hogs per year — 50 million lbs. / 289 lbs. per hog (average live weight at slaughter in 2022); a “small” cattle facility would slaughter up to 36,500 cattle per year (using cattle average live weight 1,369); a “small” poultry facility would slaughter up to 15.4 million broilers per year — 100 million lbs. / 6.49 lbs. per broiler (average live weight at slaughter).
Yes. After analyzing new data on wastewater from the MPP industry, the EPA concluded that revision of the effluent guidelines for direct dischargers and new pretreatment standards for indirect dischargers are warranted.[1]
The revised rules, proposed as of January 2024, would include “more stringent effluent limitations” on total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and updated limitations for other pollutants.[2]
89 Fed Reg. 4474 (January 23, 2024) Proposed Rules/ Clean Water Act Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Meat and Poultry Products Point Source Category. [“EPA is considering a range of options in this rulemaking. The options include more stringent effluent limitations on total nitrogen, new effluent limitations on total phosphorus, updated effluent limitations for other pollutants, new pretreatment standards for indirect dischargers, and revised production thresholds for some of the subcategories in the existing rule.” at p. 4475]
89 Fed Reg. 4474, p. 4475.
In their 2021 review of the Meat and Poultry Processing (MPP) industry dischargers, the EPA found that:
The MPP industry “discharges the highest phosphorus levels and second highest nitrogen levels of all industrial categories.”[1] This is notable since the EPA finds that excessive nitrogen and phosphorus in surface water “is one of the most widespread, costly, and challenging environmental problems impacting water quality in the United States.”[2]
Of the approximately 300 direct discharge facilities, 120 send their wastewater to rivers and streams listed as impaired, and over 40% of the total nitrogen and total phosphorus loads are discharged to waters impaired for algal growth, ammonia, nutrients and/or oxygen depletion.[3]
Out of 200 indirect discharge facilities reviewed, 73% of the associated POTWs receiving MPP wastewater have violations of permit limits for pollutants found in MPP wastewater. And “out of the more than one hundred corresponding POTW discharge permits reviewed, only 45% have nitrogen limits and only 15% have phosphorus limits, which indicates that many POTWs may not be removing much of the nutrient load discharged to POTWs from MPP industrial users.”[4]
U.S. EPA (Sept. 2021) Preliminary Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 15, EPA-821-R-21-003, p. 6.2-6.3.
U.S. EPA (2023) Basic information on Nutrient Pollution. https://www.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/basic-information-nutrient-pollution
U.S. EPA (Sept. 2021) Preliminary Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 15, p. 6-3.
U.S. EPA (Sept. 2021) Preliminary Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 15, p. 6-2.
It is likely. While the EPA was considering review of the MPP standards, a coalition of environmental groups filed a petition against the EPA, asserting that the agency’s inaction ran counter to its own evidence and was an abuse of discretion.[1]
The petition also followed on the heels of a 2018 report by the non-profit Environmental Integrity Project analyzing the EPA’s enforcement and compliance data on MPP facilities. The report found that more than 75% of the processing plants (out of 98 studied) violated at least one of the pollution limits in their permits “at least once between January 1, 2016, and June 30, 2018. These 74 plants racked up a total of 1,142 discharge violations for exceeding pollution limits.”[2]
Cape Fear River Watch v. EPA (2020), Case 19-2450, U.S. Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit, p. 11.
Environmental Integrity Project (2018) Three Quarters of U.S. Meat Processing Plants that Discharge into Waterways Violated their Permits, 2016-2018, p. 2. https://www.environmentalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Slaughterhouse_Report_Final.pdf