Estimated producer costs to comply
with new EPA clean water proposals

If existing lagoons used in swine operations cannot be retrofitted to meet new EPA standards they may need to be closed. An approved plan for closing a manure storage unit is needed under the proposed regulations.

EPA has estimated compliance costs associated with the proposed effluent limitation guidelines. Specific costs are 1) capital costs such as buying new storage or equipment and 2) annual operating and maintenance costs such as fuel, labor, and maintenance. In addition, in order to estimate the cash-flow impact of compliance, EPA estimated start-up or first-year costs and recurring costs.

All costs estimated by EPA are considered incremental to existing manure- handling costs. For example, if compliance with current regulations resulted in manure-handling costs of $5,000 annually and compliance with the new regulations cost $7,000 per year, the estimated cost of compliance is $2,000--the $7,000 post-compliance cost less the $5,000 pre-compliance cost.