Agency rejects costly meat processing wastewater changes
Pig farmers and pork processors are celebrating after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it would not move forward with new wastewater regulations for the meat industry. The proposed changes to the Meat and Poultry Processing (MPP) Effluent Guidelines and Standards would have placed a heavy financial burden on processors, especially small- and medium-sized facilities.
The changes were introduced in 2024 following litigation pushed by animal rights and environmental groups. The proposal included stricter permitting rules, new wastewater treatment requirements, and costly facility upgrades. According to EPA’s own analysis, dozens of plants across the country would have been forced to slow or shut down operations, removing important markets for livestock producers.
Over the past two years, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and other agricultural stakeholders worked with EPA to highlight the negative effects of the proposal. After reviewing the evidence, EPA determined the changes would have no measurable environmental benefit and could even weaken current protections already in place.
NPPC stressed that the livestock and processing sectors strongly support clean water efforts but opposed the proposed revisions as unnecessary and overly burdensome. “As proposed by the previous administration, this rule, which provides no environmental benefits, would have been devastating to small- and medium-sized meat processors across the country and the livestock farmers who rely on them as markets for their animals,” said NPPC President Duane Stateler, a pork producer from Ohio.