Click play to listen to this article.

Colorado has strict requirements to protect water supplies from the impacts of factory farms, but a new lawsuit claims the state is failing at this important task because of a fatal flaw in its permitting process.

Food and Water Watch senior attorney Tyler Lobdell said current permits do not have a mechanism such as basic monitoring to know when factory farms are not in compliance. "Instead, regulators just assume that the entire industry is strictly following the rules. Lobdell said this approach not only flies in the face of what scientists are seeing on the ground, it’s also unlawful.

Image

"The Clean Water Act doesn’t allow for that; it requires that permits be written in a way that are enforceable," he said, "because without enforceability, a permit is no more valuable than the paper it’s written on."

An opening brief filed in the Colorado Court of Appeals calls for Governor Jared Polis’ administration to improve the state’s general water pollution permit for concentrated animal feeding operations, also known as factory farms, by adding pollution monitoring provisions required under state and federal laws. The Polis administration has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Lobdell said the business model for these operations is far removed from the days when animals were spread out on pastures and their manure naturally became part of the soil. Today, as many animals as possible are confined to maximize profits, often for some of the largest agricultural corporations in the world.

Lobdell said tons of untreated feces, frequently more than produced by entire towns, threaten water quality and public health.

"And so it’s really the way that animals are raised now, and the highly industrialized factory farm model, that leads to this problem," he said.

Lobdell said he believes the lawsuit can move the Polis administration to ensure that factory farms, installed by one of the most powerful lobbying interests in the nation, are not polluting Colorado’s critical water resources.

"The common-sense thing here is to protect Coloradans and their water," he said. "We know how to do that with factory farm pollution. You should include that in the permit that regulates this industry. It’s as simple as that."