W.Va. Chicken Farmer Wins EPA Lawsuit Over Runoff

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has no legal right to force a West Virginia poultry grower to obtain water pollution permits for runoff from her Hardy County farm because it is routine stormwater discharge, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey said litter and manure washed by rain into Chesapeake Bay tributaries at Lois Alt's Hardy County farm is agricultural runoff, not a fixed pollution source such as a factory. That means it's exempt from the requirement that it be permitted and regulated under the federal Clean Water Act, he said.

"The term `agricultural stormwater discharge' was not and has not been defined in the statute" covering permitting, Bailey wrote. "The fact that Congress found it unnecessary to define the term indicates that the term should be given its ordinary meaning."

The EPA initially threatened to fine Alt if she didn't seek a permit for her farm, which it called a "concentrated animal feeding operation." After Alt sued last year, EPA withdrew the fines. In March, it offered to dismiss the case.

But the American Farm Bureau Federation and the West Virginia Farm Bureau joined Alt in keeping the case alive, arguing it had economic implications for farmers nationwide.

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