A new analysis reveals a staggering amount of livestock waste is flowing through Michigan’s waterways each year — equivalent to the sewage of 81 million people.
The nonprofit For Love of Water, or FLOW, released the analysis. The waste from these Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, also known as CAFOs, contains nitrogen and phosphorus, contributing to toxic blooms. Chelsea Thompson of FLOW says legal challenges to the most recent 2020 CAFO permit left Michigan farms under an outdated 2015 permit.
“There was a lot of challenges made by the ag community as well as the environmental community,” Thompson said. “I think something we can both agree on, both sides anyways, is that the 2020 permit as it was written was not in the best interest of either parties.”
Thompson says a new 2025 CAFO permit is expected in just a few months.
Michigan now has nearly 300 permitted CAFOs, up from just 34 in 2005, producing about four-billion gallons of untreated liquid waste and up to 60-million tons of solid manure annually. Thompson says the issue is often framed as farmers versus environmentalists, but she believes they’re both on the same team.
