The Sierra Club dealt another blow to the factory farming industry, with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Seaboard Corporation must report the ammonia gas pollution from its giant hog operation in western Oklahoma.  The court held that the entire 25,000-head hog operation was a single "facility" and that Seaboard must report the combined emissions from all its waste pits and confinement buildings.  In an effort to avoid regulation, Seaboard had argued that each pit and building should be counted separately.  The appellate court found Seaboard's arguments "unconvincing" and decided that reporting total emissions from the animal factory will help protect public health and the environment.    As a result of the 10th Circuit's ruling, large factory farms across the nation are responsible for reporting and dealing with toxic ammonia, which can cause respiratory problems for people forced to breathe the polluted air.  As staff attorney Barclay Rogers summed up, "This decision will force corporations to tell the public about the poisonous gases coming from these factory farms and to clean up their act."

The court's decision can be located at http://www.kscourts.org/ca10/cases/2004/10/03-6104.htm

Barclay Rogers
Associate Attorney
Sierra Club Environmental Law Program
85 Second Street, 2d Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105-3441
Phone: (415) 977-5646
Fax: (415) 977-5793
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