EPA Studying Livestock Emissions

WASHINGTON - Mar 3/05 - SNS -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will study emissions from livestock facilities in an effort to develop national air emissions standards for the U.S. livestock and poultry industries.

The $9 million study will be led by Purdue University agricultural engineer Al Heber. He says dust, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and other air emissions from animal facilities are difficult to measure, making agricultural air quality an issue as livestock operations consolidate and more people move from cities to rural areas.

Heber will be the lead researcher for the two-year air study required by the Animal Feeding Operation Consent Agreement, published Jan. 31 in the Federal Register. Study protocols were developed jointly with scientists from the EPA, U.S. Department of Agriculture, numerous universities and others. Contract terms for the study are now being reviewed.

Part of the difficulty with livestock air emissions is that limited data exist to help farmers or regulatory agencies determine which kinds and sizes of operations and types of management practices might produce emissions exceeding legal limits, Heber said.

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