Hog Farm Regulation Description

Background

On November 3, 1998, the Colorado electorate approved Amendment 14, a statute requiring the Air Quality Control Commission and Water Quality Control Commission to develop regulations for housed commercial swine feeding operations. As a result, air quality Regulation No. 2, Part B was promulgated by the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission on February 19, 1999 and water quality Regulation No. 61, Section 13 was promulgated by the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission on March 9, 1999.

Regulation No. 2, Part B requires all housed commercial swine feeding operations capable of housing 800,000 pounds of swine to obtain a permit to operate and to develop a site-specific odor management plan. Affected hog operations are required to employ technologies to minimize, to the greatest extent practicable, off-site odor emissions from all aspects of such operations. Included in the requirement are technologies to minimize odor emissions from swine confinement structures, animal waste management systems, composting storage sites, animal carcass disposal and land application equipment and sites.

Compliance with odor requirements is measured, in part, by two odor concentration standards. One odor standard applies at and beyond an operation’s boundary. This standard is set at a 7:1 dilution measurement. The second odor standard applies at any receptor, such as an occupied dwelling, school, place of business and municipal boundaries. This odor standard is set at a 2:1 dilution rate.

The regulation also includes a “cover” requirement for all new, expanded and existing anaerobic process wastewater vessels and impoundments, including treatment and storage lagoons. In general, operators are required to employ covers on these vessels and impoundments so as to capture, recover, incinerate, or otherwise manage odorous gases to minimize to the greatest extent practicable the emission of such gases to the atmosphere. The Division maintains a list of approved covers that operations can install, pending a Best Achievable Control Technology (BACT) and engineering review. Operators electing to manage process wastewater impoundments as aerobic systems must install and operate technologies to ensure maintenance of aerobic conditions or otherwise minimize emissions of odorous gases to the greatest extent practicable.

With respect to land applying process wastewater, the odor regulation includes a one-mile setback requirement for all new land waste application sites and waste impoundments. The one-mile setback applies to all occupied dwellings, public or private school, and the boundaries of any incorporated municipality. The regulation allows affected sources to obtain setback waivers from any of the above listed entities.

For more detail and specific regulatory language, refer to Colorado Odor Regulation No. 2, Part B.

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