Water Quality and Animal Feeding Operations in Arizona: A Producer's Notebook

EPA Inspections

What To Expect From An EPA Inspection

Your facility may be inspected by an EPA employee or an ADEQ employee.  If an ADEQ employee visits, s/he will make determinations on potential violations based on state law, but will only gather information on possible violations to federal laws.  Compliance determinations regarding federal laws will be made by EPA employees.  Either way, the inspector will carry an identification card that establishes his/her credentials.  You may call the EPA regional office in San Francisco at 415/144-1305 to verify employment for EPA employees. The inspector will primarily be looking at the animal waste management systems on your operation. 

For information on ADEQ’s inspection procedure, see the next section of this notebook, titled State Regulations.  You may call the ADEQ office at 602/207-4620 or 800/234-5677 to verify employment. 

Both ADEQ and EPA inspectors must show identification.  Anyone not showing proper identification need not be granted admission to a facility.   This will protect the facility owner, EPA, and ADEQ.

The inspector will want to tour your facility to check for compliance with federal environmental laws.  S/he will be particularly interested in seeing how you manage your wastewater and manure to insure that surface and groundwater are protected.

Typically, the inspector will start by recording general information: weather conditions, the date, the facility’s name and address, the county, the name of the owner/operator, and the phone number.  If you are covered under the NPDES general permit, the inspector will ask to look at your Best Management Practices (BMPs) and Nutrient Management Plans (NMPs).  You may also be asked for the location of drains, irrigation ditches, and waterways that are close to your operation.  Since many operators apply manure to cropland, you will also be asked for the total acreage, the number of acres of irrigated cropland, and what kinds of crops are grown on them.  The inspector will take notes and record the latitude and longitude of your operations so that the location can be accurately plotted on a map.  S/he may also take photographs, video recordings, and water samples.  Feel free to photograph the same things that the inspector does, take notes, and ask questions.   

The specific aspects of the inspection are:

• Is any animal waste being discharged to surface waters or is there any evidence of recentdischarge?  Are there areas where the groundwater may be contaminated?
  
  
• How is waste handled?  Is there excessive water in the corrals, fields, or along flush alleys?  Is there a potential for discharge because of how the animal waste is being handled?
  
  
• Is manure being applied to cropland?  What kind of crops?  How often and when?  Is there a potential for discharge to surface waters because of how the manure is being applied to cropland?
   
  
• Is there a waste lagoon and, if so, how large is it?  Is there enough capacity?  Is it properly constructed?  How much freeboard (distance between the contents of the pond and the top) is there?  Is it in good condition?  How much solid material has settled?  When was the last time it was dredged?
  
  
• Are there any pipelines or other conveyances that allow animal waste to be discharged to ditches, canals, streams, or waterways?
  
  
• Does a waterway, for example a river, stream, creek, or other major water body cut across your property boundary?  If not, what is the nearest proximity to a conveyance such as a pipe, ditch, irrigation canal, or other man-made conveyance or to a waterway?
  
  
• How is storm water handled?  Are there well-maintained roof drains and gutters?  Is clean storm water diverted around the wastewater systems?  Is storm water diverted around the animal contaminated areas and animal waste piles?  Are the corrals well graded?
  
  
• Is there a drinking water well?  Is there a septic system?  Are there any problems?

Note:  The inspection includes, but is not limited to, the above mentioned aspects.       

At the end of the inspection, the inspector will explain her/his findings.  The inspector also may make recommendations on how you can reduce animal waste discharges. 

During the course of the inspection, you may give business information that you do not want the public to be able to access from EPA’s files. If this is the case, a claim for confidentiality must be made.  EPA has adopted rules that govern business confidentiality claims and requests for information. 

In general, the person seeking to protect the confidentiality of information will need to show that the information, if made publicly available, would divulge trade secrets or should otherwise be treated as confidential.  Trade secrets and confidential business information are protected from public disclosure.  Generally, the inspection report itself is considered public information.

Usually, the inspector will prepare an official inspection report which will be mailed to you and a copy will be sent to ADEQ.  If the inspector found violations, EPA has a range of actions it might take. In deciding how to proceed, EPA considers the severity of the violations, your intent, your responsiveness to correcting violations, and the economic benefit you may have received in violating the law.  EPA may do any of the following:

• EPA may send a warning letter if, for example, your facility has conditions that potentially could lead to a violation.  If there is evidence of unauthorized discharges or the potential for discharges, EPA may require or request that you submit an NOI for coverage under the NPDES general permit or apply for an individual NPDES permit.  The appropriate course of action is to correct the condition.  EPA may re-inspect your facility.
  
  
• EPA may send you a Finding of Violation and Order, informing you of violations and requiring you to correct these.  The appropriate course of action is to correct the condition and to notify EPA that you have done so.  If you are having difficulty correcting the condition, you should notify the EPA immediately.  Failure to comply with a compliance order can result in penalties of up to $27,500 per day, per violation.
  
  
• EPA may seek an administrative penalty.  EPA may administratively asses a penalty of up to $11,000 per day for each day during which the violation continues, with a maximum of $137,500.  EPA will notify you that it is proposing to assess a penalty.  You may contact EPA and request a settlement conference.  You may bring an attorney or consultant with you.  You may negotiate with the EPA over the amount of the penalty and the actions the EPA is asking you to take.  If you and EPA cannot reach an agreement, your case may go before an administrative law judge.  If you disagree with the administrative law judge’s decision, you may appeal in court. 
  
  
• EPA may begin a civil suit, asking a court to require you to take appropriate action to cease or remedy the violation, and to impose a penalty. 

If at any time you have any questions about the inspection or the process, contact your inspector or Tom Huetteman, Chief of the Office of Clean Water Act Compliance at 415/744-1905.

If EPA suspects that you have willingly, knowingly, or negligently violated federal law, it may conduct a separate criminal investigation.  If sufficient evidence is found, EPA may ask the U.S. Attorney’s Office to pursue criminal charges.  This is rare but extremely serious, and can result in fines and jail time.  If you have questions about the criminal process, call the EPA Criminal Investigation Division at 415/744-2485.

Page updated 7/02

Arizona
Dept. of
Agriculture