Industry Rejects Suit Seeking CAFO Liability For Contractor's Discharges

摘要

A major poultry company is pushing a federal district court to dismiss a novel case where environmentalists are seeking to hold large livestock "integrators" liable for violations of their contractors' Clean Water Act (CWA) discharge permits, arguing that its contractual relationship with a farm is not enough to make it a defendant under the water act. Environmentalists hope the lawsuit, Assateague Coastkeeper, et al. v. Alan & Kristin Hudson Farm, et al., could lead EPA and states to hold large farming companies responsible for the waste at smaller contract farms-something industry has long resisted, saying that integrators have no control over the daily work of such farms, and consequently their waste streams. Most commercial poultry raised in the United States is done by family farms under contract to large agriculture companies, who are known as integrators.