EPA Halts Rulemaking to Reduce Water Pollution from Slaughterhouses, Leaving Tens of Millions of Americans at Risk

Washington, D.C. —

On Saturday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will abandon its years-long effort to modernize outdated and under-protective water pollution control standards for slaughterhouses and rendering facilities.

Each year, slaughterhouses and rendering facilities, which together comprise the meat and poultry products industry, discharge hundreds of millions of pounds of nitrogen and phosphorus, collectively known as nutrient pollution, along with heavy metals and dozens of other pollutants, into rivers and streams across the United States. This pollution has devastating consequences for human health and the environment. According to EPA, over 60 million people, including disproportionate numbers of people with low incomes and people of color, live within one mile of rivers and streams degraded by slaughterhouse industry pollution.

Under the Clean Water Act, EPA must promulgate and regularly revise national, industry-specific water pollution control standards for both direct- and indirect-discharging meat processing facilities. These statutory requirements notwithstanding, EPA has never published national standards for the vast majority of meat processing facilities that discharge water pollution indirectly, despite recognizing by 1977 that such standards are necessary. And for decades, EPA has failed to revise its outdated and under-protective regulations for direct-discharging facilities, even though EPA has repeatedly indicated that its existing standards are legally insufficient.

EPA’s decision to abandon rulemaking follows years of litigation and other advocacy by community, environmental, and animal welfare organizations. In 2019, Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) challenged a prior EPA decision not to modernize water pollution control standards for slaughterhouses and rendering facilities. Following that challenge, EPA announced in September 2021 that it would update standards for the industry, but it did not commit to a rulemaking timeline. Earthjustice and EIP filed a second lawsuit in 2022, which resulted in a consent decree requiring EPA to take final action relating to the standards by August 31, 2025.

In both lawsuits, Earthjustice and EIP represented Cape Fear River Watch, Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help, Waterkeepers Chesapeake, Waterkeeper Alliance, Humane Society of the United States, Food & Water Watch, Environment America, Comite Civico del Valle, Center for Biological Diversity, and Animal Legal Defense Fund.

“In abandoning this rulemaking, the Trump administration has once again sided with powerful, multinational corporations over ordinary Americans,” said Alexis Andiman, senior attorney at Earthjustice. “We shouldn’t have to choose between clean water and affordable groceries — and, the truth is, we don’t. EPA itself has admitted that widely available technology can reduce this pollution without putting businesses at risk. Modern standards would help to protect over 60 million Americans, including disproportionate numbers of people with low incomes.”

Jen Duggan, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, said: “This decision by the Trump administration will mean that slaughterhouses will continue to dump huge amounts of pollution into America’s waterways, making them unhealthy for swimming, fishing, and drinking. This gross neglect degrades the quality of life of Americans across the country.”

Food & Water Watch Legal Director Tarah Heinzen said: “Once again, Trump’s EPA is siding with corporate polluters over clean water. Slaughterhouses have spent decades polluting our nation’s waters with scant oversight. In abandoning this rulemaking, Trump’s EPA has renewed industry’s free pass to pollute.”

Kelly Hunter Foster, Waterkeeper Alliance Senior Attorney said: “The true beneficiaries of EPA’s retreat are the multinational corporations that have squeezed out independent, sustainable farming operations and processors and,  through their industry trade groups, joined EPA’s press release in an attempt to essentially convince people that they must be allowed to continue polluting our water in order for everyone to afford their products. This is a false dilemma—we can have both clean water and safe, affordable food.”

Although EPA attributed its decision to abandon rulemaking, in part, to the fact that the meat processing industry currently faces “multiple economic stressors,” the agency’s own evidence undermines this conclusion. In its December 2024 proposal to update industry standards, EPA included regulatory thresholds to protect small businesses. EPA determined that, even under the most stringent regulatory option examined in that proposal, fewer than 1% of all the meat processing facilities would face economic hardship.

In addition, EPA estimated that, for every million pounds of meat produced, the strongest regulatory option would reduce the overall meat supply by just 650 pounds, with minimal impact on consumer prices.