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EPA Orders Illinois Livestock Operation To Pay $40,000 Penalty For Unauthorized Waste Discharges

Release Date: 07/09/2010
Contact Information: Kären Thompson, 312-353-8547, [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 10-OPA73

CHICAGO (July 9, 2010) — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has ordered Greenville Livestock Inc., 25815 Hugo Road, Centralia, Ill., to pay a $40,000 fine for failing to comply with the Clean Water Act. EPA previously ordered the facility to stop all unauthorized discharges and apply to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for a permit to discharge wastewater.

Greenville is a large concentrated animal feeding operation in the Kaskaskia River watershed in central Illinois with more than 1,000 cattle.

An EPA inspection found that Greenville was not using best management practices to prevent the discharge of manure and other animal production waste. EPA also discovered that the facility did not have a Clean Water Act permit to discharge.

EPA Water Division Director Tinka G. Hyde said, “When pollutants from livestock manure and other animal production waste discharge into waterways they can create a threat to public health and harm water resources”.

Manure and wastewater from animal feeding operations have the potential to contribute pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus, organic matter, sediments and pathogens to the environment. Stopping unauthorized discharges may require a facility to build larger waste storage structures or change waste and material handling practices.

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