WASHINGTON — As more stakeholders continue to work through the proposed wastewater discharge standards for meat and poultry facilities by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), two congressmen have decided to take a strong stance against the possible regulation.

Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) and Ron Estes (R-Kan.) introduced the Banning EPA’s Encroachment of Facilities (BEEF) Act that looks to prohibit the EPA from finalizing, implementing or enforcing a new EPA proposed rule titled “Clean Water Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Meat and Poultry Products Point source category.”

“Once again, Biden’s EPA is using its rulemaking pen to attack small businesses in Kansas and across the country through their recent regulations proposal on local meat processors,” Estes said. “Kansans have shared with me that this egregious burden by federal bureaucrats would shutter small operations in our communities due to the steep costs of implementing unnecessary, major phosphate and nitrogen testing that large-scale meat-processing operations can absorb and already conduct. Together with Congressman Burlison, our commonsense bill would prevent the EPA from attacking local mom-and-pop meat producers with their regulatory overreach.”

During December 2023, the EPA stated that the new standards would leverage pollution control technologies to cut the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other pollutants in wastewater. The agency also said other materials from facilities it would monitor include oil, grease, organic material, salts and ammonia.

The EPA published the details of its proposal on Jan. 23. in the Federal Register. The agency then held a virtual hearing on the matter the next day.

Industry trade groups have come out against the new regulations and are looking for different solutions from the agency.

Supporters of the latest bill in the House of Representatives include the American Association of Meat Processors (AAMP), Missouri Farm Bureau, Missouri Association of Meat Processors and the Kansas Meat Processors Association.

“I want to be clear that AAMP believes we as an industry need to be environmentally responsible, but the proposed rule in its current state is greatly flawed,” said Chris Young, executive director for AAMP. “The proposed rule is based on limited wastewater collection and limited visits to meat and poultry facilities and is based largely on a study performed by one of the activist groups that sued EPA. EPA quotes the study more than 20 times in the proposed rule, a study that has not been peer reviewed. EPA needs to start over and do its due diligence in collecting data and work with the industry to understand its diversity and how we can work together to come up with cost effective sustainable answers to wastewater issues.”

Tom Eickman, owner of Eickman’s Processing Inc. in Seward, Ill., and president of AAMP, responded to the BEEF Act proposal and the recent proposed regulations by the EPA.

“A better understanding of the industry as a whole is needed to form a working set of rules that protects the environment and allows us to produce the food needed to feed the nation,” Eickman said. “Our owners and employees of all food processing facilities are also members of our communities. We all live, work and enjoy the environments in which we live, and we wish to be environmentally responsible. However, a one-size-fits-all approach often does not work. The meat industry welcomes discussion of revising the rules but would like more input that a long, complicated survey and limited site visits.”