The US Environmental Protection Agency says it will not develop emissions estimating methods under the 2005 Air Compliance Agreement, bringing a two-decade effort involving hog, poultry and dairy farms toward an end, Farms.com reports.
The decision affects about 2,600 animal feeding operations, representing nearly 14,000 farms or facilities, that joined the agreement. EPA's enforcement office will also work to end obligations under it.
The National Air Emissions Monitoring Study collected data between 2005 and 2007 on ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds. The aim was to give farms tools to estimate emissions and work out their regulatory responsibilities.
EPA now concludes that barns, herd sizes, practices and manure systems have changed too much. "Good science requires good data, and these data are too old and too limited to support methods that farms could rely on," said Abigale Tardif, acting assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation.
The agency released updated draft methods for comment in November 2024. After comments closed in August 2025 it identified limits in the data that could not be fixed, and its determination this October says the study framework can no longer serve its purpose.
EPA says the step "does not change its implementation of the Clean Air Act" or its commitment to clean air, including in rural communities.
Photo: unknown author / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Source: Farms.com
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