American Stewards of Liberty | Update on EPA Rule for Small Meat Processors

Earlier this year, American Stewards reported on the new Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rule that would bring thousands of meat and poultry processing facilities under their jurisdiction.

By changing the effluent limitations, the EPA is attempting to update water pollution control standards allowed by slaughterhouses and meat processing plants.

These proposed changes were brought about by lawsuits filed by 13 environmental organizations in 2019 during the Trump administration.  But it wasn’t until the Biden administration that the EPA decided to act and begin to force their administrative power onto hard working Americans. 

The EPA estimates the rule will reduce pollutants discharged through wastewater by about 100 million pounds per year.  The rule, however, not only applies to processors directly discharging wastewater into rivers, but also applies to those processors indirectly discharging wastewater through treatment plants.

The EPA found Nitrogen and Phosphorus in the wastewater and said those are now pollutants.  As Dr. Robert Malone, physician and biochemist who exposed the dangers of covid vaccines said, Nitrogen and Phosphorus are hardly pollutants, but rather “two fundamental elements which all living things are composed of (Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus).”

According to EPA estimates, at least 16 facilities will be forced to close, impacting 17,000 jobs, and at the most, 53 plants could close.

But 27 states are arguing the rule could affect 3,879 processing facilities.  And, the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association said the industry will incur $1.6 billion per year in compliance costs.

As reported in The Epoch Times, the U.S. Poultry’s analysis found that 74 facilities would close with a loss of 31,500 to 78,500 direct jobs.  And the trickle-down impact on other companies that provide goods and services could have a potential job loss between 127,000 to 317,000. 

In January, three days after the EPA proposed the rule, Reps. Ron Estes (R-Kansas) and Eric Burlison (R-Missouri) introduced H.R. 7079, to protect small family-owned meat and poultry processors.   

And, on July 9th, Mr. Estes included an amendment to the Interior and Environment Subcommittee Fiscal Year 2025 Appropriations Act to defund the Environmental Protection Agency’s Proposed Clean Water Act Effluent Limitation rule.

Passing these bills and reigning in the administrative state will take a conservative majority in both houses and a conservative administration. Otherwise, the rule is set to go into effect in August of next year.  If this occurs, getting access to locally sourced meats will be more difficult as producers will have fewer processing options.