Environmentalists Sue Bush Administration

Worried that new federal rules for factory farms aren´t strong enough to stop manure from fouling the nation´s waters, three environmental groups announced today they are suing the Bush administration.

The Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and Waterkeeper Alliance filed the lawsuit Friday in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. It challenges the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review its regulations for confined animal feeding operations. The groups are concerned the new rules will weaken protections in the Clean Water Act and endanger the public health. A Sierra Club attorney in San Francisco, Barclay Rogers, says the Bush Administration´s rule doesn´t make polluting factory farms clean up the waste their animals produce. As Rogers sees it, “That contradicts our belief in cleaning up the messes you make, and violates the protections that are responsible for keeping our rivers and lakes clean.”