Group Sign-on Letter Sent to Congress Opposing Bills that Exempt CAFOs from CERCLA Liability
Fifty-eight Clean Water Network member organizations, representing the hundreds of thousands of their individual members, signed a letter addressed both houses of Congress asking all Senators and Members to oppose legislation that would exempt CAFO operators from liability under CERCLA. House bill H.R. 4341 and send Senate bill S. 3681 would reverse CERCLA’s polluter-pays principle and exempt livestock and poultry operations from the responsibility for paying to clean up waters, including drinking water sources, they pollute.
CAFOs that fail to adequately dispose or reuse the tons and tons of manure produced on site often allow the excess waste to get into our rivers and lakes. CERCLA has been an effective tool to hold CAFO operators that pollute waters responsible for their clean up.
