As authorized by the Clean Water Act, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United States. This program includes the U.S., Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) rule.

In Iowa, EPA delegates enforcement of the NPDES program to the DNR. Livestock and poultry producers need to follow state law and state regulations. The DNR will issue the federal NPDES permits as it has since 1972. Iowa's open feedlots that are greater than 1,000 animal units have always needed the NPDES. Confinement feeding operations have not needed NPDES permits under federal law, because state law does not allow confinements to discharge to waters of the state. The 2002 changes in federal rules mean that all confinement feeding operations with more than 1,000 animal units will be affected by the NPDES permitting requirements.

Helpful Links:

The EPA has recently made some rule changes regarding concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The Iowa DNR administers these rules and goes through the normal rulemaking process to implement these rules. The EPA rules are available on its Web site.