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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Coalition Sues EPA Over Factory Farm Pollution

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Thursday, January 29, 2015   

DES MOINES, Iowa - The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is being taken to court over the pollution from so-called factory farms in a case that could impact livestock producers and rural residents across Iowa.

The petitions, filed in federal court, say the EPA has failed for years to address noxious emissions and demands action from the agency within the next 90 days.

Tarah Heinzen is an attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project. She explains, the focus of their petition is the setting of health-based national air standards for ammonia.

"Because livestock operations are the nation's dominant source of this pollutant, which causes numerous damaging impacts on health and the environment," says Heinzen. "The petition simply asks the EPA to write rules that will hold factory farms to the same standards as other major polluters."

Another petition requests that the EPA list factory farms as a category of sources of pollution under the Clean Air Act. Heinzen says there are roughly 20,000 livestock operations in the U.S. and they produce more than 500 million tons of manure each year.

The legal action comes from a coalition of environmental, humane and community organizations, on behalf of rural residents and family farmers whose health and quality of life has been impacted. That includes Rosie Partridge of Sac County, whose home sits within four-miles of operations with a combined 30,000 hogs.

"We are nauseated at times with the choking smell of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, as well as the odor of decaying animals," Partridge says. "It is unbearable and we have had to leave our home for several days during the worst of it, and are certain it is affecting our health."

When it comes to livestock production, Iowa is the top state in the country for both hogs and laying hens, and is in the top five for cattle.


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