Slaughterhouses and meat processing plants are significant polluters, using vast amounts of water and generating wastewater high in phosphorus and nitrogen. The EPA intends to update wastewater pollution standards for the first time in 20 years due to a legally binding agreement with environmental groups. This regulation targets harmful environmental effects, including algae blooms and gastrointestinal illnesses. Stakeholders, including major meat companies, are resisting the changes, but advocates emphasize the urgent need for updated controls to protect waterways and public health.
By the end of August, the EPA has plans to announce new limits on these and other pesky pollutants in wastewater from processing plants that can cause harmful algae blooms, kill swaths of fish and expose local communities to bacteria that cause gastrointestinal illness.
There is an enormous volume of waste going straight into waterways, and contaminating drinking water. It's desperately overdue for regulation, says Delcianna Winders, director of the Animal Law and Policy Institute.
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