5 Colo. Code Regs. § 1002-81.6

Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 20, October 25, 2024

Section 5 CCR 1002-81.6 - FACILITY MANAGEMENT PLAN: NON-PERMITTED CAFOs

The operator of a non-permitted CAFO shall compile and maintain on-site a facility management plan (FMP) that includes, to the extent applicable, the information specified in sections 81.6(1), 81.6(2), 81.6(3) and 81.6(4).

(1) Surface water protection elements - Production Area. The operator of a non-permitted CAFO must develop, document in the FMP and implement the following design, construction and performance requirements for the production area by no later than May 30, 2011 or upon being defined as a CAFO.

(a) Use of the following structures, methods and procedures to control wastewater:

(i) Impoundments

(A) All impoundments must be designed, constructed, and maintained to be capable of storing, the volume of all manure and wastewater, including the runoff resulting from a 25-year, 24-hour storm or Chronic Storm, whichever is greater, plus two feet of freeboard, except where the operator requests, and the Division approves, an alternative freeboard level.

(B) All requests for an alternative freeboard level shall include documentation that the alternative freeboard level will protect the structural integrity of the impoundments and terminal tanks, and will be functionally equivalent to two feet of freeboard to prevent overflows caused by factors such as wind and receipt of direct precipitation.

(ii) Conveyance Structures

(A) All conveyance structures must be designed, constructed, and maintained to be capable of carrying the flow expected from a 25-year, 24-hour storm or Chronic Storm, whichever is greater.

(iii) For open-lot wastewater only; a solid/liquid waste separation facility used in conjunction with a wastewater treatment strip

(A) The solid/liquid waste separation facility in conjunction with a wastewater treatment strip shall be designed, constructed, and maintained so that it is capable of managing the flow expected from a 25-year, 24-hour storm or Chronic Storm, whichever is greater.

(B) The system described in subsection (A) above shall also be designed in accordance with United States Department of Agriculture - Natural Resources Conservation Service standards, or other standards approved by the Division.

(iv) For process-generated wastewater, the operator may use the wastewater control system described in section 81.6 where the Division approves a plan submitted by the operator demonstrating that the system will be sustainable, including that wastewater released into the treatment strip will be properly assimilated by the vegetation.

(v) A method approved by the Division.

(b) Install a depth marker in all impoundments indicated in the facility design calculations as being necessary to contain a 25-year, 24-hour storm or Chronic Storm, whichever is greater. Depth markers must be clearly marked, at minimum, in one foot increments and shall clearly indicate the minimum capacity necessary to contain the greater storm event.

(i) Perform weekly inspections of depth markers and record the wastewater level in each impoundment containing a depth marker.

(c) Design, construct, and maintain structures that are sized to divert stormwater from running onto a production area as appropriate.

(d) Procedures to ensure proper operation and maintenance of the impoundments, including the following:

(i) Whenever the storage capacity of impoundments and tanks is less than the volume required to store runoff from the designed storm event, the structures shall be dewatered to a level that restores the required capacity once soils on a land application site have the water holding capacity to receive the wastewater, or in accordance with section 81.6(2)(a)(i)(C).

(2) Surface water protection elements - Land Application Sites. The operator of a non-permitted CAFO shall develop, document in the FMP and implement the following practices and procedures for land application sites by no later than February 27, 2009 or upon being defined as a CAFO.

(a) Apply manure and wastewater to a land application site in accordance with the following practices and procedures:

(i) Conservation Practices - Site-specific conservation practices that have been identified and implemented, including as appropriate, buffers or equivalent practices, to control runoff of pollutants to surface water. Such practices shall include, but are not limited to:

(A) Solid manure shall be incorporated as soon as possible after application, unless the application site has perennial vegetation or is no-till cropped, or except where the operator adequately demonstrates that surface water quality will be protected where manure is not so incorporated.

(B) Where wastewater is applied to a land application site via furrow- or flood-irrigation, it shall be applied in a manner that prevents any wastewater runoff into surface water.

(C) There shall be no discharge to surface water from land application activities when the ground is frozen or saturated.

(D) Manure or wastewater shall not be land-applied within 150 feet of domestic water supply wells, and within 300 feet of community domestic water supply wells.

(ii) Sampling and Analysis - Manure, wastewater, and soil shall be sampled and analyzed with the following frequency. The results of the analyses shall be used in determining application rates for manure and wastewater.

(A) Manure and wastewater shall be sampled and analyzed a minimum of once annually for nitrogen and phosphorus content.

(B) The soil of land application sites shall be sampled and analyzed a minimum of once annually for available nutrients, including nitrate-nitrogen.

(C) The top one foot of soil of land application sites shall be sampled and analyzed for available phosphorus a minimum of once every five years, or as specified in section 81.6(2)(b)(v), below.

(iii) Protocols established by the operator for land applying manure or wastewater in accordance with site specific nutrient management practices that ensure appropriate utilization of the nutrients in the manure or wastewater. Such protocols shall include, but are not limited to:

(A) No application of manure or wastewater shall be made to a land application site at a rate that will exceed the capacity of the soil and the planned crops to assimilate plant available nitrogen within 12 months of the manure or wastewater being applied.

(B) Manure and wastewater shall be applied as uniformly as possible with properly calibrated equipment.

(C) Application rates of manure and wastewater shall be calculated using one of the following methods: the most current published fertilizer suggestions of Cooperative Extension in Colorado or adjacent states; the most current nutrient management planning guidelines for Colorado as published by the USDA, NRCS; or an alternative method approved by the Division.

(b) Nutrient Transport Minimization - Application rates for manure and wastewater applied to a land application site must minimize phosphorus and nitrogen transport from the sites to surface water and shall be in accordance with the following standards:

(i) Assessments shall be made for each land application site of the potential for phosphorus and nitrogen transport from the site to surface water and that address the form, source, amount, timing, and method of application of nitrogen and phosphorus to achieve realistic yield goals, while minimizing nitrogen and phosphorus movement to surface water.

(A) Phosphorus transport risk assessments shall be made using the most current USDA, NRCS Colorado Phosphorus Index Risk Assessment tool or other Division-approved method. The approved risk assessment tool shall provide for off-site transport risk scores of either 'low', 'medium', 'high', or 'very high'.

(B) An initial assessment of the potential for phosphorus and nitrogen transport risk to surface water shall be made prior to manure or wastewater being applied to an application site after the operator's FMP is implemented.

(ii) Where the assessed risk of off-site phosphorus transport for a land application site is rated as 'high', phosphorus-based manure and wastewater application rates may be applied at crop phosphorus removal rates only if a phosphorus draw-down strategy is implemented for the crop rotation (i.e. rotational phosphorus application rate is less than the rotational crop removal).

(iii) No application of manure or wastewater shall be made to a land application site where the assessed risk of off-site phosphorus transport is rated as 'very high' until the risk of phosphorus movement off-site has been decreased to a phosphorus transport risk assessment rating of 'high' or less.

(iv) No application of manure or wastewater shall be made to a land application site where the risk of off-site nitrogen transport to surface water is not minimized.

(v) After an initial assessment is made of the potential for phosphorus and/or nitrogen transport from a land application site to surface water, additional assessments shall be made at the following frequency, whichever is sooner:

(A) Of both phosphorus and nitrogen transport risk, every five years; or,

(B) Where a crop management change has occurred, assess phosphorus transport risk within one year after such change would reasonably result in an increase in the phosphorus transport risk assessment score, and assess nitrogen transport risk within one year after such a change would reasonably result in the nitrogen transport to surface water not being minimized; or,

(C) Where a phosphorus transport risk assessment score was 'very high', assess phosphorus transport risk within six months of intending to apply manure or wastewater, except as provided in section 81.6(2)(b)(iv), above.

(D) Where a nitrogen transport risk assessment reveals that nitrogen transport to surface water is not minimized, assess nitrogen transport risk within six months of intending to apply manure or wastewater.

(vi) Where a multi-year phosphorus application was made to a land application site, no additional manure or wastewater shall be applied to the same site in subsequent years until the applied phosphorus has been removed from the site via harvest and crop removal.

(c) Inspect Land Application Equipment - Periodically inspect for leaks from equipment used for land application of manure or wastewater. At minimum, such inspection shall be made annually and within the six month period prior to the first application of manure or wastewater, and at least once daily when wastewater is being applied.

(d) Setback Requirements - Unless the operator exercises one of the alternatives provided below, manure and wastewater shall not be applied closer than 100 feet to any down-gradient surface waters, open tile line intake structures, sinkholes, agricultural well heads, or other conduits to surface water.

(i) As a setback alternative, the operator may substitute the 100-foot setback with a 35-foot wide vegetated buffer where applications of manure or wastewater are prohibited.

(ii) The Division may approve an alternative setback or buffer based on a demonstration by the operator that a required setback or buffer is not necessary because implementation of alternative conservation practices or land application site conditions will provide pollutant reductions equivalent or better than the reductions that would be achieved by the 100-foot setback.

(e) Mortalities - Mortalities shall remain on the production area until disposal and shall be managed to ensure that they are not disposed of in a wastewater storage system that is not specifically designed to treat animal mortalities.

(f) Prevent direct contact of confined animals with surface water.

(g) Ensure that chemicals and other contaminants handled on-site are not disposed of in any manure or wastewater storage system unless specifically designed to treat such chemicals and other contaminants.

(3) Ground water protection elements - Production Area. The operator of a non-permitted CAFO shall include in the FMP the following information by no later than February 27, 2009 or upon being defined as a CAFO. The FMP shall be updated as necessary to meet the requirements of the sections of this regulation cited below.

(a) The impoundment liner records and certifications specified in sections 81.7(2)(b) and (c).

(b) The current approved Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) specified in section 81.7 , and manure/sludge removal certifications specified in section 81.7(3)(d).

(c) Information demonstrating that the facility is in compliance with the depth marker, conveyance structure, and setback requirements specified in sections 81.7(4),(5) and (6).

(4) Recordkeeping - The operator shall create, maintain at the facility for five years from the date they are created, and make available to the Division or its designee, upon request, the following records:

(a) Records identified by the operator that will be maintained to document the implementation and management of the surface water protection elements described in sections 81.6(2)(a) through (g).

(b) Weekly records of the depth of the manure and wastewater as indicated by the depth markers in the impoundments required to be inspected by section 81.6 , or as indicated by an alternative method approved by the Division.

(c) A copy of the current FMP shall be compiled and maintained in one discrete place at the facility, such as an office or filing cabinet.

5 CCR 1002-81.6

40 CR 13, July 10, 2017, effective 7/31/2017