The EPA needs our help to establish NPDES permit fees for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). This session’s bill represents an agreement between the Illinois EPA and livestock industry, reached after several months of discussions this winter. Eight environmental groups joined Prairie Rivers Network in support of the bill, which passed out of the House Environment & Energy Committee in February. Provided the industry groups do not change their minds, we hope the bill will become law by the end of session. Passage of this bill (HB-5642) would end the livestock industry’s unfair exemption from paying NPDES permit fees and provide the IEPA with needed revenue to implement the federal Clean Water Act.