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Factory Farms Are Poisoning the Air and Don't Have to Tell Anyone
Final signature count: 468
468 signatures toward our 30,000 goal
Sponsor: The Rainforest Site
Factory farms release toxic gases into nearby communities — and the EPA lets them do it in secret.
In 1986, Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act — EPCRA — to guarantee that people living near industrial facilities could access information about hazardous substances released into their air. Chemical plants, manufacturing facilities, and other major polluters must report their emissions to local emergency planners and health authorities. But for millions of Americans living near large factory farms, that guarantee has a significant gap.
An Exemption That Left Communities in the Dark
In 2019, the EPA finalized a rule exempting concentrated animal feeding operations — CAFOs — from EPCRA's reporting requirements for ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. These are not minor pollutants. Hydrogen sulfide causes headaches, nausea, and respiratory distress at low concentrations and can be fatal at high levels. Ammonia is a documented lung irritant linked to serious respiratory illness. Large hog, poultry, and cattle operations release both gases in substantial quantities. Under the 2019 rule, they face no obligation to report those releases to anyone.5
The result is an information blackout. Local emergency planners don't have the data. Health departments don't have the data. The families living closest to these facilities don't have the data.
Courts Have Sided With the EPA — But the Fight Continues
In August 2025, a federal court upheld the exemption, ruling in favor of the EPA's interpretation of the law.5 Advocates refused to accept that outcome. In October 2025, a coalition that included Earthjustice, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Food & Water Watch, and the Waterkeeper Alliance filed an appeal, arguing that the exemption contradicts the core purpose of EPCRA and leaves vulnerable communities without the information they need to protect their health.1,2,4,6
Their argument is direct: CAFOs are industrial-scale operations releasing documented hazardous substances. Every other comparable industrial polluter in the country must comply with EPCRA. There is no principled reason to exempt factory farms.7
Who Bears the Burden
The people most exposed to CAFO air emissions are disproportionately low-income families and communities of color — people who already face barriers to medical care, legal resources, and political representation.3 Without mandatory reporting, they have no reliable basis to document what they breathe, no data to bring to health authorities, and no foundation for legal accountability. First responders face the same blind spot.
Right-to-know laws only work when they apply consistently.7 Carving out one of the country's largest sources of agricultural air pollution is not a technicality — it is a structural failure in public health transparency.
The EPA Has the Authority to Fix This
The 2019 exemption was a regulatory choice. It can be reversed. Rescinding that rule would restore EPCRA's original promise, give emergency planners the data they need, and bring factory farms under the same accountability standards that apply to other major industrial polluters.
Sign the petition now to urge the EPA Administrator to rescind the 2019 CAFO reporting exemption and restore every community's right to know what's in the air.
