The NCC and USPoultry have filed suit in the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to challenge certain aspects of the Environmental Protection Agency's new regulation on water pollution discharges from so-called confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, reports Meat and Poultry.

The new regulation was issued in response to a 2005 ruling by the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that said EPA could not require growers to apply for permits merely because they have a 'potential to discharge' pollutants to US waters.

EPA has replaced that portion of the rule with a new provision that would require permits where there is a 'proposal to discharge'. The NCC/USPoultry lawsuit contends the new requirement does not conform to the Second Circuit's ruling.

In addition, the lawsuit challenges recent guidance documents, issued by EPA in the form of letters, that interpret the CAFO regulation. According to the two organisations, the letters essentially say a grower has a 'proposal to discharge' and therefore must apply for a permit, if poultry housing has a ventilation fan that may potentially exhaust dust or other substances on the ground where rain water might wash them into a ditch leading to surface waters.

NCC and USPoultry will argue that Congress did not intend to regulate these normal agricultural practices when it enacted the Clean Water Act, concludes the Meat and Poultry report.