If You Care about the Chesapeake Bay, Here's What You Need to Know about Maryland's Clean Water Act Permit for Agricultural Pollution

Maryland recently proposed to reissue its Clean Water Act permit for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) for another five-year term. This permit is an example of what is called a "general permit." Whereas many factories and sewage plants have an individual permit to set pollution limits and other terms and conditions for facility operation, states that implement the Clean Water Act often use general permits to cover hundreds or thousands of facilities within a single industry. This is the first reason that Maryland's upcoming CAFO permit renewal is a big deal. Just one permit will regulate hundreds of industrial-scale animal feeding operations that discharge massive amounts of pollution.