Factory Farm Buildings with Large Sewage Lagoons
Factory Farm Buildings with Large Sewage Lagoons

Prairie Rivers Network is broadening our clean water work by initiating a new campaign called the Illinois Factory Farm Watch. Factory farms, also known as confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), house thousands of livestock and poultry in buildings or feedlots for the purpose of mass meat, egg, or dairy production. Factory farms generate huge amounts of sewage which is stored in underground pits, man-made lagoons, or dumped into huge manure piles. Waterways become contaminated during storms when rain carries sewage into the water. Sewage is often sold or given to nearby farmers who apply it as fertilizer, but all too often there is more supply than demand and the sewage is over-applied to the factory farm’s own fields using trucks or an irrigation spray system. When managers are desperate to get rid of the waste, they have been known to dump it into nearby streams. Some have even created underground piping systems for this very purpose. Massive fish kills have resulted from this illegal practice.

Recently Stacy James, PRN’s Water Resources Scientist, traveled to a “Pure Farms, Pure Waters” summit in North Carolina, sponsored by Waterkeeper Alliance. She met people from around the country who are working to reduce the negative impacts of factory farms. Some of these people were members of watershed or environmental groups that are battling a particular proposed or existing factory farm. Other attendees were lawyers, scientists, consultants and family farmers. All concurred that we need to return to the old way of small, diversified farms where the animals can be outside and eat growing vegetation.

Factory farms will continue to dominate the market until we change agricultural policies and the way we eat and grow our food. In the meantime, what can we do? One angle is to make sure that pollution from factory farms is regulated as required by the Clean Water Act. Like sewage treatment plants, factory farms are considered “point sources” of pollution and must have a wastewater permit if waste from the facility reaches a stream or lake. The majority of factory farms claim to be no-discharge facilities, but the reality is that most facilities eventually contaminate nearby waterways or groundwater.

PRN will demand that discharging factory farms have permits while working with state and federal agencies to reduce the likelihood of discharges occurring. We will also be monitoring streams around specific facilities to determine whether they have been contaminated by illegal discharges. Some of this monitoring will be done by volunteers and some by paid scientists. In the event that violations are found, we will ask that Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) conduct an inspection and take the appropriate enforcement actions, or we will initiate our own lawsuit.

What Can You Do?

  • If you know a factory farm is discharging sewage into a waterway, report the incident by calling IEPA at 888/372-1996 or fill out their online pollution complaint form at www.epa.state.il.us/pollution-complaint/.
  • If you live near an operational factory farm and suspect illegal discharges, call PRN at 217/344-2371.
  • Reduce your consumption of meat/eggs/dairy and/or buy these products from smaller producers with a reputation for conservation-mindedness.

Photo by: Diane Baldwin, Neuse Riverkeeper Foundation