Latest National CAFO News
Lake Erie Harmful Algal Bloom Bulletin 5-19-18
True color image on 16 May 2018 taken by the MODIS on the NASA Aqua satellite. A plume of sediment from the Maumee River appears in the southwest corner of the lake. Sediment from previous high flow events and strong winds can be seen. No cyanobacteria are present.
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Toledo Mayor goes after Farm Bureau and Legislature at Algae Conference
ANN ARBOR — The second and final day of an algae conference here attended by many Great Lakes scientists and policy experts began with some strong accusations by Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz about the agricultural lobby’s influence on state legislators.
“We live in a state where our legislature is a wholly owned subsidiary of the farm bureau,” Mayor...
Read MoreStench compensation: Jury awards hog farm neighbors $50 million (NC)
RALEIGH, NC - The News & Observer; BY ANNE BLYTHE ablythe@newsobserver.com
A North Carolina jury awarded $50 million to neighbors of a 15,000-hog farm in Eastern North Carolina in a case being closely watched across the country by environmentalists and the hog farm industry.
The verdict, revealed late Thursday after a jury deliberated less than...
Read MoreLAKE ADVOCATES — OHIO EPA IS “WHOLLY-OWNED SUBSIDARY OF THE FARM BUREAU”
News from 
April 19, 2018
Contact: Mike Ferner 419-729-7273
LAKE ADVOCATES: OHIO EPA IS A “WHOLLY-OWNED SUBSIDARY OF THE FARM BUREAU”
“Farm Bureau failed in federal court to protect the polluters of Chesapeake Bay, but the Bureau’s loyal agents in Ohio...
Read MoreWhat will Lake Erie’s impairment mean for northwest Ohio?
By Tom Henry, Toledo Blade
Though hailed as a rare victory for environmentalists, the Kasich administration’s reversal on the western Lake Erie impairment issue is only a “key first step” in litigation that may keep the state of Ohio tied up in court for years over cleanup strategies, according to the Chicago-based legal advocacy group that forced the administration’s hand on the...
Read MoreKasich declares Lake Erie’ Open Waters Impaired (Toledo Blade)
The Kasich administration — after years of resistance on behalf of agriculture — announced Thursday it has reversed itself on northwest Ohio’s arguably most contentious water-policy issue and will declare the open waters of western Lake Erie as impaired.
Although details of the impairment designation are still to be worked out, it will invariably mean tighter rules for agriculture and others...
Read MoreLAKE ADVOCATES RETURN TO FEDERAL COURT FOR IMPAIRED STATUS
Press Advisory It’s Pigs versus Pure Michigan – a Few Miles from Lake Michigan
Great Lakes Now 1/22/2018
The push and pull between Michigan’s growing agriculture industry and the need to protect drinking water, beach recreation and tourism continues to play out, evidenced by a request to establish a factory pig farm a few miles from Lake Michigan.
The proposed Marsh Swine farm near Montague, Michigan would house 4,000 pigs in a facility...
Read MoreFederal EPA reverses course on ‘voluntary’ algae reduction plan – Toledo Blade
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reversed itself on the western Lake Erie impairment issue, admitting it was wrong to approve a Kasich administration plan that relied on voluntary action to reduce algae-inducing runoff.
The federal agency said in a Jan. 12 letter to Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler it has reevaluated Ohio’s Oct. 20, 2016, submission, which did not recommend an impairment...
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