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Legislation recently introduced in the U.S. Senate clarifies that severe regulatory provisions of the Superfund law, also known as CERCLA, should not apply to manure produced on livestock farms and ranches.

The Farm Bureau-supported bill would amend the Superfund law passed in 1980, reaffirming that it was never intended to apply to agriculture.

According to OFBF's Director of National Affairs Adam Sharp, activists had tried to persuade lawmakers that animal waste is a hazardous substance that should be subject to the law.

"But natural animal waste is already heavily regulated under the Clean Water Act and state laws," he said.

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) contends Superfund regulations were enacted more than a quarter century ago to rein in industrial polluters and clean up toxic waste sites and were not to be imposed on America’s farmers and ranchers.

Clarifying the intent of the Superfund law will remove the threat of multi-million dollar penalties that were never meant to apply to America’s farms.