Why animal waste management is a key to control agriculture runoff?
According to an EPA survey, agriculture is the most widespread source of pollution for rivers and lakes. Agriculture impacts 20% of assessed river miles and 14% of assessed lake acres. The state reports also indicate that agriculture impacts 59% of impaired river miles and 31% of impaired lake acres (EPA, 2000a). Nationally, there are an estimated 1.3 million farms with livestock. About 238,000 of these farms are considered animal feeding operations (AFOs). Comparison of Human Waste and Animal Waste in the United States SDA estimates that operations that confine livestock and poultry animals generate about 500 million tons of manure annually (as excreted). This compares to EPA estimates of about 150 million tons (wet weight) of human sanitary waste produced annually in the United States , assuming a U.S. population of 285 million and an average waste generation of about 0.518 tons per person per year. By this estimate, all confined animals generate three times more raw waste than is ge
