Pictured are cows eating. Photo provided by Indiana News Service.

By Terri Dee
Indiana News Service

INDIANAPOLIS — A new study shows more than 1 million tons of animal waste is produced every year in the U.S.

Consumers’ desire for more animal protein and better efficiency to reduce world hunger are a few of the reasons for the increase in concentrated animal feeding operations. Opponents said the emissions they produce pose a risk to public health. The animals’ waste falls onto slatted floors into a manure pit and is then piped into a pond or “manure lagoon.”

Elise Pohl, a graduate student in global public health at the Queen Mary University of London and the study’s author, explained the disposal process.

“And then they take that manure and they pipe it into trucks to fertilize land,” Pohl pointed out. “While it is sitting in that lagoon, it emits several different components; ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, methane, endotoxins, carbon dioxide.”

There are nearly 54,000 farms in Indiana. Farmers who want to start or expand a confined feeding operation on property which initially meets Indiana’s Confined Feeding Control Law must get a permit from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. The operations are allowed and are based on size but must meet additional requirements.

The department has systems in place to regulate stormwater from manure-applied fields. The agency also oversees clean stormwater runoff diversion from manure and feed areas, manure handling and storage structures. Research has shown employees exposed to manure pit gases in other states have higher rates of respiratory illnesses. Pohl stressed the health risks don’t stop there.

“The front line workers that are exposed to things like avian influenza and antimicrobial resistant genes and they can take that home, expose their family and friends,” Pohl asserted. “And then it’s further spread into the community.”

As many as 70% of exposed workers developed acute bronchitis due to a lack of health and safety measures. In Indiana, routine and complaint-based inspections are conducted to ensure compliance with operational requirements. The department describes its oversight and design as more stringent than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.