Section 501.102  Policy

a)         It is the purpose of the General Assembly in adopting the Environmental Protection Act to restore, maintain, and enhance the purity of the air and waters of Illinois to protect health, welfare, property, and quality of life.  An adequate supply of healthy livestock is essential to the well-being of Illinois citizens and the nation.  They provide a daily source of meat, milk, and eggs.  Their efficient, economic production must be the concern of both producers and consumers if we are to have a continued abundance of high-quality, wholesome food and other livestock products at reasonable prices.  The policy must establish regulations that will provide a balance between a wholesome environment and the efficient production of adequate livestock products.

b)         Livestock produce wastes that, when properly used, supply nutrients and organic matter to soils.  The mere presence of livestock waste in a given location does not denote pollution, but may, when improperly stored, transported, or disposed of, undesirably affect the environment.

c)         It is determined that the construction, establishment, and operation of specified livestock management facilities and livestock waste-handling facilities without environmental planning and safeguards or the use of specified livestock wastes for agricultural purposes causes, threatens, or allows the discharge of contaminants into the air or waters of Illinois so as to cause or threaten to cause pollution or to render those waters harmful to public health, safety, or welfare, to domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, and recreational uses, or to humans, livestock, wild animals, birds, or fish or other aquatic life.

d)         It is determined that the construction, establishment and operation of livestock management facilities and livestock waste-handling facilities without environmental planning and safeguards or the use of livestock wastes for agricultural purposes causes, threatens, or allows air pollution. The discharge of contaminants into the air of Illinois in sufficient quantities and of such characteristics and duration as to be injurious to human, plant, or animal life, to health, or to property, or to unreasonably interfere with the enjoyment of life or property. [415 ILCS 5/3.115] It is recognized that the presence of odor is an inherent characteristic of livestock management facilities and livestock waste-handling facilities, and that the detection of that odor is not per se air pollution.

e)         It is the purpose of this Chapter to prevent pollution of the air and waters of Illinois caused by failure to plan regarding proper environmental safeguards for the construction, location, and operation of specified livestock management facilities and livestock waste-handling facilities.  A permit system is established to ensure that those activities take account of environmental considerations and to meet the requirements for federal approval, as established by the CWA.  It is also the purpose of these regulations to prevent pollution from the numerous point and non-point discharges, both continuous and fluctuating, which are present in specified livestock management facilities or livestock waste-handling facilities.  To this end, procedural safeguards are required, in addition to compliance with the CWA, NPDES filing requirements, and the feedlot category of point source effluent guidelines.

(Source:  Amended at 48 Ill. Reg. 3170, effective February 15, 2024)