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WATER POLLUTION: EPA TARGETS HOG, POULTRY FACILITIES

Targeting corporate hog and poultry farms, the US EPA last week proposed more frequent inspections and stepped-up enforcement efforts under a new policy to "plug holes in the Clean Water Act."

EPA's Robert Perciasepe said under the new "holistic approach," regulators would also focus on the fertilizer use, urban runoff and sewage-treatment operations that contribute excess nutrients in waterways. The drive to curb nutrient runoff "has taken on new urgency" since outbreaks in the Mid-Atlantic of the toxic microorganism Pfiesteria piscicida, which has killed more than 1 billion fish and forced the closure of several Chesapeake Bay tributaries (Greenwire, 10/7)

The EPA's new policy will be available for public comment later this month (Bill Lambrecht, St. Louis Post Dispatch, 10/12).