Committee reviews miscellaneous agriculture bill addressing CAFO enforcement and water definitions

Michael Green of Legislative Council briefed a Senate committee on draft 25-0904, the miscellaneous agriculture bill under consideration before crossover, saying the bill makes tailored changes to the Agency of Agriculture—s water-quality program to comply with an EPA corrective action.

Green told the panel the changes respond to EPA concerns that the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) must be the clear lead enforcement authority for discharges from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). He said the draft clarifies that ANR would handle investigations and enforcement where there is a discharge, while the Agency of Agriculture would continue to regulate farms where no discharge is found. "Technically, right now, the agencies have the split in jurisdiction correct," Green said, describing the draft as a focused response to EPA's delegation concerns.

Committee members asked whether the bill transfers the entire agriculture water-quality program to ANR; Green said it does not. He and others discussed a separate, longer bill introduced by Senator Hardy and other language ANR has circulated that would adopt the narrower federal definition of "waters" for the CAFO program rather than the broader state definition. Green said adopting the federal definition would reduce the number of farms subject to ANR permitting, which would affect staffing and implementation costs. He noted ANR—s separate proposal is about 20 pages long.

Members discussed fee language in draft 25-0904: Green identified a provision on page 9 that would require a fee of $2,500 for a farm. Committee members flagged that fee provisions typically require referral to money committees such as Ways and Means or Appropriations and that the bill may therefore need additional committee consideration. Green said the miscellaneous bill likely would be routed to the money committees if the ANR language or the fee provisions remain.

The committee agreed to continue discussion later in the morning and to hear additional testimony, including from Agency of Agriculture and ANR staff and from Secretary Moore. Green said he was scheduled to testify before other committees later in the morning and acknowledged there were parallel bills and proposals circulating that could be reconciled during cross-chamber coordination.

No formal committee action on draft 25-0904 was recorded in this session; members discussed options for amending the bill to include ANR language or to coordinate with separate legislation.