This is an interim report of the ad hoc Committee on Air Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations of the National Research Council's Committee on Animal Nutrition. A final report is expected to be issued by the end of 2002. The interim report is intended to provide the committee's findings to date on assessment of the scientific issues involved in estimating air emissions from individual animal feeding operations (swine, beef, dairy, and poultry) as related to current animal production systems and practices in the United States. The committee's final report will include an additional assessment within eight broad categories: industry size and structure, emission measurement methodology, mitigation technology and best management plans, short- and long-term research priorities, alternative approaches for estimating emissions, human health and environmental impacts, economic analyses, and other potential air emissions of concern. This interim report focuses on identifying the scientific criteria needed to ensure that estimates of air emission rates are accurate, the basis for these criteria in the scientific literature, and uncertainties associated with them. It also includes an assessment of the emission-estimating approaches in a recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report Air Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations. Finally, it identifies economic criteria needed to assess emission mitigation techniques and best management practices.

Air Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations: Current Knowledge, Future Needs discusses the need for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to implement a new method for estimating the amount of ammonia, nitrous oxide, methane, and other pollutants emitted from livestock and poultry farms, and for determining how these emissions are dispersed in the atmosphere. The committee calls for the EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to establish a joint council to coordinate and oversee short - and long-term research to estimate emissions from animal feeding operations accurately and to develop mitigation strategies. Their recommendation was for the joint council to focus its efforts first on those pollutants that pose the greatest risk to the environment and public health.

Air Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations: Current Knowledge, Future Needs discusses the need for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to implement a new method for estimating the amount of ammonia, nitrous oxide, methane, and other pollutants emitted from livestock and poultry farms, and for determining how these emissions are dispersed in the atmosphere. The committee calls for the EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to establish a joint council to coordinate and oversee short - and long-term research to estimate emissions from animal feeding operations accurately and to develop mitigation strategies. Their recommendation was for the joint council to focus its efforts first on those pollutants that pose the greatest risk to the environment and public health.

Air Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations: Current Knowledge, Future Needs discusses the need for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to implement a new method for estimating the amount of ammonia, nitrous oxide, methane, and other pollutants emitted from livestock and poultry farms, and for determining how these emissions are dispersed in the atmosphere. The committee calls for the EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to establish a joint council to coordinate and oversee short - and long-term research to estimate emissions from animal feeding operations accurately and to develop mitigation strategies. Their recommendation was for the joint council to focus its efforts first on those pollutants that pose the greatest risk to the environment and public health.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) are large livestock and poultry operations that raise animals in a confined situation. CAFOs can improve the efficiency of animal production but large amounts of manure can degrade air and water quality. The EPA is responsible for regulating CAFOs and requires CAFOs that discharge certain pollutants to obtain a permit. This report discusses: (1) trends in CAFOs over the past 30 years; (2) amounts of waste they generate; (3) findings of key research on CAFOs¿ health and environmental impacts; (4) EPA¿s progress in developing CAFO air emissions protocols; and (5) effect of recent court decisions on EPA¿s regulation of CAFO water pollutants. Includes recommendations. Illustrations.

From an environmental quality standpoint, much of the public and policy interest in animal agriculture has focused on impacts on water resources, because animal waste, if not properly managed, can harm water quality through surface runoff, direct discharges, spills, and leaching into soil and groundwater. A more recent issue is the contribution of air emissions from animal feeding operations (AFOs), enterprises where animals are raised in confinement. This report provides background on the latter issue. AFOs can affect air quality through emissions of gases such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, hazardous air pollutants, and odor. These pollutants and compounds have a number of environmental and human health effects. Agricultural operations have been treated differently from other businesses under numerous federal and state laws. Some environmental laws specifically exempt agriculture from regulatory provisions, and some are designed so that farms are not subject to most, if not all, of the regulatory impact. The primary regulatory focus on environmental impacts has occurred under the Clean Water Act. In addition, AFOs that emit large quantities of air pollutants may be subject to Clean Air Act regulation. Some livestock operations also may be regulated under the release reporting requirements of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). Questions about the applicability of these laws to livestock and poultry operations have been controversial and have drawn congressional attention. Agriculture's role as both a source of and a "sink" for greenhouse gases also has been of interest in connection with addressing the global challenge of climate change. Enforcement of environmental laws requires accurate measurement of emissions to determine whether regulated pollutants are emitted in quantities that exceed specified thresholds. Two reports by the National Research Council evaluated the state of the science and approaches for estimating AFO air emissions to guide future management and regulatory efforts. In an effort to collect scientifically credible data on air emissions, in 2005 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a plan negotiated with segments of the animal agriculture industry. Called the Air Compliance Agreement, it was intended to produce air quality monitoring data on AFO emissions, while at the same time protect participants through a "safe harbor" from liability under certain provisions of federal environmental laws. Issues related to this agreement, which was controversial among environmental advocates, state and local air quality officials, and some industry groups, are discussed separately in CRS Report RL32947, Air Quality Issues and Animal Agriculture: EPA's Air Compliance Agreement.