Zeldin: EPA won’t stiffen water standards for meat industry 

On a tour of the Midwest last week, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that his agency will not move forward with proposed Effluent Limitation Guidelines for wastewater treatment in the meat and poultry processing and rendering industries. 

Zeldin portrayed the decision as a way to keep prices down for both human and pet foods. 

At a farm in Sleepy Eye, Minn., Zeldin was joined by Reps. Brad Finstad and Michelle Fischbach, both Republicans.

In Nebraska he met with Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, and at the Nebraska State Fair joined Sen. Pete Ricketts and Rep. Adrian Smith, both Republicans. 

“This important decision by Administrator Zeldin ends a regulatory disaster that would have forced meat processing facilities to close, causing food prices to go up and hardship for livestock and poultry producers,” said Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts.

“We are grateful for the swift action of the Trump administration to put the consumer first and eliminate burdensome regulations that destroy jobs.”

The Meat and Poultry Products Industry Coalition, which opposed the proposed standards, is made up of the Meat Institute, National Chicken Council, National Pork Producers Council, National Turkey Federation, North American Renderers Association and the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association.

Duane Stateler, National Pork Producers Council president and a pork producer from McComb, Ohio, said, “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.”

“EPA’s action will save not only the nearly 100 local meat processors that EPA itself identified would have to close down but also the thousands of family farmers who rely on them to stay in livestock production, and it will help ensure affordable, nutritious American-grown pork can continue to be served on dinner tables across the country,” Stateler said.