Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is leading a coalition of Republican attorneys general in urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw a proposed regulation affecting meat and poultry processors. The regulation would impose significant costs on these industries by expanding the number of plants subject to wastewater discharge rules.
The proposed rule aims to regulate meat and poultry processing plants with indirect wastewater discharges—wastewater that passes through municipal sewage treatment facilities before reaching navigable waters. This change would increase the number of regulated plants from approximately 150 to potentially 3,879.
Currently, out of 5,055 meat processing facilities in the United States, only 171 are regulated by the EPA.
"This is yet another example of the Biden administration EPA overreaching and damaging rural America in the process," said Abhishek Kambli, Kansas Deputy Attorney General. "This proposed rule is not only unlawful but imposes crippling regulatory costs on small meat and poultry processing plants whose wastewater discharges do not even go directly into navigable waters to begin with. This is wrong and the EPA should withdraw the proposed rule."
In a letter sent to the EPA, a coalition of 28 state attorneys general led by Kobach and Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin argued that regulating indirect wastewater discharge from meat and poultry plants circumvents existing regulations and could cost local processors up to $100 million.
The attorneys general contend that the EPA lacks clear authority for this regulation under the Clean Water Act. They also note that adopting this rule follows a lawsuit settlement agreement between the agency and environmental groups, raising concerns about potential legal constraints preventing its withdrawal without violating consent judgment terms.
Joining Kobach and Griffin in this effort are attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.