The EPA has opened the public comment period for a proposed rule to reduce water pollution from meat and poultry processing. 
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a regulation to revise wastewater discharge standards for facilities that process meat and poultry products. Many of these facilities are located near communities with environmental justice concerns that have bodies of water impaired by nutrient pollution. These proposed regulations will likely have the greatest impact on Maryland's Eastern Shore, a region with a historic and prominent poultry industry. The agency's proposal would leverage the latest pollution control technologies to cut the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other pollutants discharged into the Chesapeake Bay, improving water quality for downstream communities and ecosystems.
The Clean Water Act requires EPA to revise industry-wide wastewater treatment limits—called effluent limitation guidelines or ELGs—to keep pace with innovations in pollution control technology. The first ELGs for facilities that process meat and poultry products were issued in 1974 and the last revision was in 2004. ELGs are based on the performance of demonstrated wastewater treatment technologies, and they are intended to represent the greatest pollutant reductions that are economically achievable for an entire industry.
EPA's proposed regulation would establish updated technology-based pollution limits that are affordable and achievable using existing demonstrated technologies. Additionally, the implementation of these ELGs includes flexibility to achieve the established limits using different technologies or operational strategies. This flexibility serves as an incentive for facilities and control technology vendors to develop even lower-cost compliance options.
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Check out the EPA's proposed Meat and Poultry Products Effluent Guidelines.
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