EPCRA Update #3

Dear Illinois Livestock Producer,

The final Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) rule affecting livestock facilities (large CAFOs only) was published December 18^th, 2008. Owners/operators of certain livestock operations are obligated as of January 20, 2009 to comply with provisions of EPCRA.

If you did not e-mail or call in before January 20th (see below), then do so as soon as possible ("Steps 1 and 2 of 3") and follow up with the written report ("Step 3 of 3") within 30 days of that initial contact. The written report form has the address for US mail and the e-mail address of the state agency contact (IEMA). The contact information for your local agency is listed in the Excel file LEPC Contacts.xls. The EPCRA written report form, and the set of instructions for completing that written report, are available below for download as pdf files.

Also available are the calculation tables for figuring your facility's continuous emissions of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide for the EPCRA reporting. IF you are required to report (see tests 1 & 2 in this message), use these worksheets to calculate the emissions that go on the report form that is due to state and local emergency management agencies by Feb 19, 2009.

The written report is not species specific, and you are not required to show your emissions calculations or animal numbers on the written report, only to report the total emissions. Please keep a copy of the written report form along with your calculation sheets as part of your farm records.

If, after you read the rest of the message, you have any questions, feel free to email your commodity group representative or the following Extension contacts: Ted Funk funkt@illinois.edu office 217-333-9313 Randy Fonner refonner@illinois.edu office 217-333-2611. Calling Extension does not relieve you of the duty to make the required, timely contacts with the state and local agencies as required in the EPCRA regulation.

There are two tests of whether you need to do anything at this time:

Test 1. If you signed the Air Emissions Consent Agreement in 2005 or 2006, and paid the stipulated facility-size-based penalty to the US Treasury, you do not need to do anything at this time. EPA will announce the results of the National Air Emissions Monitoring Study at some time in the future, and will determine after that whether and how the participants in the Agreement need to report emissions.

Test 2. If you own/operate a facility having the following numbers or greater of animals (you DO NOT need to add species or management groups for this test):

These are the threshold animal numbers: (1) 700 mature dairy cows, whether milked or dry. (2) 1,000 veal calves. (3) 1,000 cattle other than mature dairy cows or veal calves. Cattle includes but is not limited to heifers, steers, bulls and cow/calf pairs. (4) 2,500 swine each weighing 55 pounds or more. (5) 10,000 swine each weighing less than 55 pounds. (6) 500 horses. (7) 10,000 sheep or lambs. (8) 55,000 turkeys. (9) 30,000 laying hens or broilers, if the farm uses a liquid manure handling system. (10) 125,000 chickens (other than laying hens), if the farm uses other than liquid manure handling system. (11) 82,000 laying hens, if the farm uses other than a liquid manure handling system. (12) 30,000 ducks (if the farm uses other than a liquid manure handling system). (13) 5,000 ducks (if the farm uses a liquid manure handling system).

Here is what owner/operators of large CAFOs in Illinois need to do:

Step (1) of (3). In order to meet the requirements of U.S. EPA's Final Rule on EPCRA, please open the form "EPCRA E-mail Form", complete the blanks, cut/paste the completed form and send it via email to: ema.mailbox@illinois.gov It may be a good idea to mark your message with "read receipt" so that you have a record that it was received. THIS IS ILLINOIS-SPECIFIC.

Step (2) of (3). You also need to provide the same information to your Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC). This is preferably also done via email. You can find the contact information in the Excel spreadsheet "LEPC contacts.xls". Or, find your county contact in the database at http://yosemite.epa.gov/oswer/lepcdb.nsf/SearchForm?OpenForm and call the local LEPC office contact.

Your Local Emergency Planning Committee is linked to the county where your facility is located.

Step (3) of (3). Send a written follow-up report within 30 days to the same state and local contacts. For those completing the initial contacts (Steps 1 and 2) by January 20, the due date for Step 3 is February 19th, 2009.

To fill out the written report form, download the files "Large CAFO Report Form-updated", "EPCRA written report instructions", and the EPCRA calc file that applies to your facility type (for example, swine producers should download "EPCRA_swine_calc.pdf", and follow the instructions.