Fact Sheet

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Fact Sheet 21 What is the Agricultural Storm
Water Exemption?

• By Joe Harrison, Washington State University

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Appropriate Use of Manure and Process Wastewater
When manure and process wastewater are applied in
accordance with practices designed to ensure
appropriate agricultural utilization of
nutrients, it is a beneficial agricultural input.
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Agricultural Storm Water Exemption
Manure and process wastewater that have been
applied in accordance with site-specific nutrient
management practices that ensure appropriate
agricultural utilization of the nutrients in the
manure and process wastewater.
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Agricultural Storm Water Exemption (cont'd)
Dry weather discharges of manure or process
wastewater resulting from its application to
land area under the control of a CAFO would not
be considered an agricultural storm
water discharge and thus would be subject to
Clean Water Act requirements.
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CAFOs are Required to Use Site-Specific Nutrient
Management Practices

• Identify appropriate, site-specific conservation
• practices to be used.
• Including buffers or equivalent practices to
  control
• runoff to waters of the United States

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CAFOs are Required to Use Site-Specific Nutrient
Management Practices (cont'd)

• Identify methods for appropriate testing of
  manure, litter, process wastewater, and soil.
• Establish methods to land apply manure,
  litter,or process wastewater according to
  site-specific
• nutrient management practices.

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CAFOs are Required to Use Site-Specific Nutrient
Management Practices (cont'd)

• Identify records that will be maintained to
  document the implementation and manage-ment of
  the minimum components of a nutrient management
  plan (see CAFO Fact Sheet 6 for more information
  about record keeping).

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Definition of Terms

• AFOAnimal Feeding Operation
• CAFOConcentrated Animal Feeding Operation
• NPDESNational Pollutant Discharge Elimination
  System

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Definition of Terms (cont'd)

• Process wastewaterWater directly or indirectly
• used in the AFO for any or all of the following
  spillage or overflow from animal watering
  systems washing, cleaning, or flushing pens,
  barns, manure pits, or other AFO facilities
  direct contact swimming, washing, or spray
  cooling of animals or dust control. Process
  wastewater also includes any water that comes
  into contact with any raw materials, products, or
  byproducts including manure, litter, feed, milk,
  eggs, or bedding.

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Author
Joe Harrison, a Nutrient Management Specialist
at Washington State University, can be reached
at harrison_at_puyallup.wsu.
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Reviewers

• The author wishes to thank Wendy Powers, Iowa
  State University Nora Mena, Washington State
  Department of Agriculture David Schmidt,
  University of Minnesota and John Gillies,
  Washington State Natural Resource Conservation
  Service, for their review of this fact sheet.

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For More Information
Environmental Regulations Related ResourcesEPA
CAFO Phone Line202-564-0766 http//www.epa.gov/np
des/caforule/To obtain copy of
regulations http//www.epa.gov/npdes/afo/statecont
acts/To obtain state environmental agency
contacts http//www.epa.gov/agriculture/animals.ht
ml/To obtain compliance assistance information
from EPA http//cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/contacts.cfm?p
rogram_id7typeREGION/To obtain EPA Region
Animal Feeding Operation contacts
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For More Information (cont'd)

• Land-Grant University Resources
• The local contact for your land-grant university
  Cooperative Extension program is listed in the
  phone book under "Cooperative Extension" or
  "(county name) County Cooperative Extension."
• http//www.reeusda.gov/1700/statepartners/usa.htm/
  To obtain state Cooperative Extension contacts
• http//www.lpes/To view the Livestock and
  Poultry Environ-mental Stewardship (LPES)
  curriculum resources

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For More Information (cont'd)

• USDA Farm Bill Resources
• To obtain more information about the Farm Bill
  2002, see the USDA-NRCS website at the following
  URL http//www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/farmbill/20
  02/.
• You can also contact your local USDA Service
  Center, listed in the phone book under "U.S.
  Department of Agriculture," or your local
  conservation district.

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Funding

• This material is based upon work supported by the
  Cooperative State Research, Education, and
  Extension Service, U.S. Department of
  Agriculture the U.S. Environmental Protection
  Agency, the National Agriculture Assistance
  Center and the University of Nebraska
  Cooperative Extension, University of
  Nebraska-Lincoln, under Cooperative Agreement
  Number 97-EXCA-3-0642.