The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently scrapped long-awaited regulations that would have limited toxic phosphorus discharges from 126 slaughterhouses and meatpacking facilities across the United States.

These rules were set to keep more than 8 million pounds of phosphorus and 9 million pounds of nitrogen, bacteria, and industrial waste out of U.S. rivers and streams each year — protecting aquatic life, reducing toxic algal blooms, and improving public health for millions of Americans living near these waterways.

Now, those protections are gone — discarded at the last minute by the Trump administration.

Each year, the meat industry releases an estimated 112 million pounds of water pollution into our environment. These chemicals contribute to dangerous algal blooms, create massive “dead zones” in lakes and coastal waters, and endanger drinking water for communities — especially low-income neighborhoods and communities of color who live near processing plants.

This rollback violates the EPA’s own findings that stricter standards are needed to comply with the Clean Water Act and would benefit both ecosystems and public health.

We, the undersigned, call on:

The EPA
President Donald Trump
Congressional oversight committees

to immediately:

• Reinstate the discarded phosphorus discharge limits for all 126 meat and poultry processing plants
• Strengthen and enforce Clean Water Act protections for slaughterhouse pollution
• End special treatment for factory farm polluters at the expense of public health
   

Americans deserve clean water, safe food, and responsible environmental regulation — not political favors for industry giants.

Tell the EPA: Reinstate the rules. Protect our rivers. Defend public health.