New rules from Michigan's environmental regulatory agency on when and how the largest animal farms dispose of manure and liquid wastes are being praised by environmentalists as a step toward improving state water quality − and blasted by farmers as more costly bureaucratic impositions that won't better the environment.

Philip Roos, director of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), late last month issued his "Opinion from the Director" clarifying issues around the general permit for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, the approximately 290 large farms housing the majority of the state's dairy cows, hogs, chickens, and turkeys. These operations, often with thousands of animals, generate massive amounts of waste: 40 million to 60 million tons of

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