AUSTIN — New permits being issued by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) for confined animal feeding operations are among the first in the nation to combine air and water quality protection regulations into one permitting system.
The new regulations, which became effective in July, are designed to protect both air and water quality while streamlining the process that some livestock and poultry producers have to go through in order to receive the permits, said Eric Chasteen, TNRCC permit writer, at the recent Innovations and New Horizons in Livestock and Poultry Manure Management conference here.
“Our primary goals are to protect air and water quality. We also want to promote sound management,” Chasteen told the group of 200 producers, researchers and industry officials gathered for the meeting.
The regulations are found in Title 30 of the Texas Administrative Code, also referred to as the Subchapter K rules. The Texas Water Code and the Texas Clean Air Act authorize the TNRCC to regulate the management of livestock and poultry waste from confined animal feeding operations (CAFO’s).
Depending on the type of operation, anyone planning to construct and/or operate a confined feeding operation before this year was required to meet regulations under the Water Code and Clean Air Act, and sometimes had to apply for different permits under the two acts. Additionally, they had to apply for an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency general permit.
Whether a business qualifies as a confined animal feeding operation depends on the number of animals it contains. For example, a dairy will qualify with 250 milking cows, a beef cattle operation with 1,000 head and a swine operation with 1,500 pigs.
About 600 confined animal feeding operation water permits and 206 air permits were issued by the TNRCC under the old regulations. Annually, an average of 69 CAFO’s are permitted under the water program and 49 are permitted under the air program, he said.
Applying for several permits is expensive in time and money for both the producer and the governmental agencies involved. Also, there were at times conflicting rule requirements between the air and water quality permits in Texas and the EPA permit.
The new regulations are a result of a collaborative effort between TNRCC, the CAFO industry and other cooperating agencies. However, the operation must still qualify for an EPA permit separately, Chasteen said.
To qualify, the CAFO must include in its permit application its best management practices, such as how it will process all of its waste water or how it will handle dust problems. Additionally, it must include what facilities it will built to handle such practices. Potential pollution sources, or areas of the facility that may come into direct contact with animal wastes, significant recharge zones, or any agricultural chemicals that may be used, stored, or disposed of at the facility, must be added to the application, he said.
Once all of the information is received, the applicant is asked to publish a public notice. All public comments must be made in the form of a written, sworn statement that describe in detail how the application, if approved, would affect a person, property or another legal interest.
If no comments are received from a 1 mile radius around the operation, and there are no major changes in the application, the TNRCC will issue a permit.
If the comment is found to have technical merit — or evidence that the application for authorization does not meet all technical requirements of the rules or that the applicant’s past compliance history has resulted in an impact to water quality in the state — the TNRCC will ask the applicant to do one of several things: the applicant can either withdraw his application, forward the application for a contested case hearing, file a request that the TNRCC review that comment for technical merit, or request that the TNRCC suspend processing of the application for a period of no more than 30 to allow the applicant time to provide the additional information.
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