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FYI
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Anaerobic treatment of livestock waste accounts for 6 to 10 percent of the total
methane emissions from human-related activities in Texas
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Source: Texas Institute for Applied Environmental Research,
Tarelton State University, Interim Report to the Joint Interim Committee on the Environment, 72nd Texas Legislature [Stephenville, September 199], 66.
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While much of the concern about air pollution is focused on industrial and urban
sources, people living in rural areas also can face nuisance odors and toxic air pollution. Airborne pesticides are a concern in some rural areas. One study
estimated that only 10 to 15 percent of pesticides sprayed from crop dusters reach their intended source. The remaining 85 to 90 percent can drift up to twenty miles.*
Other agricultural facilities and operations that can result in emissions of air
contaminants such as odors and particulate matter include cotton gins, cottonseed oil mills, sugar mills, feed mills, smokehouses, hide tanning, seed
cleaning, sugarcane and crop-residue burning, and confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). CAFOs are facilities in which animals such as poultry, hogs, or cows are concentrated in a
relatively small area for egg-laying, stabling, sleeping, milking, or feeding purposes. Sometimes, animal waste from
these operations is collected in ponds, which can release both odors and methane gas (one of the greenhouse gases).
Other animal waste is placed in manure mounds or applied as fertilizer to the land, which also can lead to odor nuisances.
CAFOs and other agricultural activities are more likely to contribute air pollutants such as particulate matter to the
atmosphere during hot, dry weather. For example, feedlot dust can result when cattle activity increases around dusk.
Odor problems, on the other hand, usually occur following significant precipitation.* Large CAFOs are typically required
to obtain air permits, while smaller CAFOs have been exempt from the permitting process. Regardless of size, all
CAFOs must be operated in a manner that does not result in either dust or nuisance odor problems. While quantitative
measurement standards for odors have not been developed, odors from CAFOs in rural areas are a controversial issue.* The TCEQ reports that between FY 1992 and FY 1996, the agency received about 2,500 odor complaints. About
100 of these could be attributed to hog, dairy farms or other agricultural facilities.* While odor may be addressed in
air permits, often it is not, and as long as a business is operating according to its permit and other air quality
regulations, it is often difficult for the agency to enforce because of a "subjective" odor complaint.
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