Ohio Revised Code
Chapter 903 | Concentrated Animal Feeding Facilities
Section 903.01 | Concentrated Animal Feeding Facility Definitions.

Effective: September 14, 2016
Latest Legislation: Senate Bill 293 - 131st General Assembly
As used in this chapter:
(A) "Agricultural animal" means any animal generally used for food or in the production of food, including cattle, sheep, goats, rabbits, poultry, and swine; horses; alpacas; llamas; and any other animal included by the director of agriculture by rule. "Agricultural animal" does not include fish or other aquatic animals regardless of whether they are raised at fish hatcheries, fish farms, or other facilities that raise aquatic animals.
(B) "Animal feeding facility" means a lot, building, or structure where both of the following conditions are met:
(1) Agricultural animals have been, are, or will be stabled or confined and fed or maintained there for a total of forty-five days or more in any twelve-month period.
(2) Crops, vegetative forage growth, or post-harvest residues are not sustained in the normal growing season over any portion of the lot, building, or structure.
"Animal feeding facility" also includes land that is owned or leased by or otherwise is under the control of the owner or operator of the lot, building, or structure and on which manure originating from agricultural animals in the lot, building, or structure or a production area is or may be applied.
Two or more animal feeding facilities under common ownership shall be considered to be a single animal feeding facility for the purposes of this chapter if they adjoin each other or if they use a common area or system for the disposal of manure.
(C) "Animal feeding operation" has the same meaning as "animal feeding facility."
(D) "Cattle" includes, but is not limited to, heifers, steers, bulls, and cow and calf pairs.
(E) "Concentrated animal feeding facility" means an animal feeding facility with a total design capacity equal to or more than the number of animals specified in any of the categories in division (M) of this section.
(F) "Concentrated animal feeding operation" means an animal feeding facility that complies with one of the following:
(1) Has a total design capacity equal to or more than the number of animals specified in any of the categories in division (M) of this section;
(2) Satisfies the criteria in division (M), (Q), or (EE) of this section;
(3) Is designated by the director of agriculture as a medium or small concentrated animal feeding operation pursuant to rules.
(G) "Discharge" means to add from a point source to waters of the state.
(H) "Federal Water Pollution Control Act" means the "Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972," 86 Stat. 816, 33 U.S.C. 1251 et. seq., as amended, and regulations adopted under it.
(I) "Finalized," with respect to the programs required under division (A)(1) of section 903.02 and division (A)(1) of section 903.03 of the Revised Code, means that all rules that are necessary for the administration of this chapter have been adopted and all employees of the department of agriculture that are necessary for the administration of this chapter have been employed.
(J) "General permit" has the meaning that is established in rules.
(K) "Individual permit" has the meaning that is established in rules.
(L) "Installation permit" means a permit for the installation or modification of a disposal system or any part of a disposal system issued by the director of environmental protection under division (J)(1) of section 6111.03 of the Revised Code.
(M) "Large concentrated animal feeding operation" means an animal feeding facility that stables or confines at least the number of animals specified in any of the following categories:
(1) Seven hundred mature dairy cattle whether milked or dry;
(2) One thousand veal calves;
(3) One thousand cattle other than mature dairy cattle or veal calves;
(4) Two thousand five hundred swine that each weigh fifty-five pounds or more;
(5) Ten thousand swine that each weigh less than fifty-five pounds;
(6) Five hundred horses;
(7) Ten thousand sheep or lambs;
(8) Fifty-five thousand turkeys;
(9) Thirty thousand laying hens or broilers if the animal feeding facility uses a liquid manure handling system;
(10) One hundred twenty-five thousand chickens, other than laying hens, if the animal feeding facility uses a manure handling system that is not a liquid manure handling system;
(11) Eighty-two thousand laying hens if the animal feeding facility uses a manure handling system that is not a liquid manure handling system;
(12) Thirty thousand ducks if the animal feeding facility uses a manure handling system that is not a liquid manure handling system;
(13) Five thousand ducks if the animal feeding facility uses a liquid manure handling system.
(N) "Major concentrated animal feeding facility" means a concentrated animal feeding facility with a total design capacity of more than ten times the number of animals specified in any of the categories in division (M) of this section.
(O) "Manure" means any of the following wastes used in or resulting from the production of agricultural animals or direct agricultural products such as milk or eggs: animal excreta, discarded products, bedding, process waste water, process generated waste water, waste feed, silage drainage, and compost products resulting from mortality composting or the composting of animal excreta.
(P) "Manure storage or treatment facility" means any excavated, diked, or walled structure or combination of structures designed for the biological stabilization, holding, or storage of manure.
(Q) "Medium concentrated animal feeding operation" means an animal feeding facility that satisfies both of the following:
(1) The facility stables or confines the number of animals specified in any of the following categories:
(a) Two hundred to six hundred ninety-nine mature dairy cattle whether milked or dry;
(b) Three hundred to nine hundred ninety-nine veal calves;
(c) Three hundred to nine hundred ninety-nine cattle other than mature dairy cattle or veal calves;
(d) Seven hundred fifty to two thousand four hundred ninety-nine swine that each weigh fifty-five pounds or more;
(e) Three thousand to nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine swine that each weigh less than fifty-five pounds;
(f) One hundred fifty to four hundred ninety-nine horses;
(g) Three thousand to nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine sheep or lambs;
(h) Sixteen thousand five hundred to fifty-four thousand nine hundred ninety-nine turkeys;
(i) Nine thousand to twenty-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine laying hens or broilers if the animal feeding facility uses a liquid manure handling system;
(j) Thirty-seven thousand five hundred to one hundred twenty-four thousand nine hundred ninety-nine chickens, other than laying hens, if the animal feeding facility uses a manure handling system that is not a liquid manure handling system;
(k) Twenty-five thousand to eighty-one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine laying hens if the animal feeding facility uses a manure handling system that is not a liquid manure handling system;
(l) Ten thousand to twenty-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine ducks if the animal feeding facility uses a manure handling system that is not a liquid manure handling system;
(m) One thousand five hundred to four thousand nine hundred ninety-nine ducks if the animal feeding facility uses a liquid manure handling system.
(2) The facility does one of the following:
(a) Discharges pollutants into waters of the United States through a ditch constructed by humans, a flushing system constructed by humans, or another similar device constructed by humans;
(b) Discharges pollutants directly into waters of the United States that originate outside of and that pass over, across, or through the facility or otherwise come into direct contact with the animals at the facility.
"Medium concentrated animal feeding operation" includes an animal feeding facility that is designated by the director as a medium concentrated animal feeding operation pursuant to rules.
(R) "Mortality composting" means the controlled decomposition of organic solid material consisting of dead animals that stabilizes the organic fraction of the material.
(S) "NPDES permit" means a permit issued under the national pollutant discharge elimination system established in section 402 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and includes the renewal of such a permit. "NPDES permit" includes the federally enforceable provisions of a permit to operate into which NPDES permit provisions have been incorporated.
(T) "Permit" includes an initial, renewed, or modified permit to install, permit to operate, NPDES permit, and installation permit unless expressly stated otherwise.
(U) "Permit to install" means a permit issued under section 903.02 of the Revised Code.
(V) "Permit to operate" means a permit issued or renewed under section 903.03 of the Revised Code and includes incorporated NPDES permit provisions, if applicable.
(W) "Person" has the same meaning as in section 1.59 of the Revised Code and also includes the state, any political subdivision of the state, any interstate body created by compact, the United States, or any department, agency, or instrumentality of any of those entities.
(X) "Point source" has the same meaning as in the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.
(Y) "Pollutant" means dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, filter backwash, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials except those regulated under the "Atomic Energy Act of 1954," 68 Stat. 919, 42 U.S.C. 2011, as amended, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste, including manure, discharged into water. "Pollutant" does not include either of the following:
(1) Sewage from vessels;
(2) Water, gas, or other material that is injected into a well to facilitate production of oil or gas, or water derived in association with oil and gas production and disposed of in a well, if the well that is used either to facilitate production or for disposal purposes is approved by the state and if the state determines that the injection or disposal will not result in the degradation of ground or surface water resources.
(Z) "Process generated waste water" means water that is directly or indirectly used in the operation of an animal feeding facility for any of the following:
(1) Spillage or overflow from animal watering systems;
(2) Washing, cleaning, or flushing pens, barns, manure pits, or other areas of an animal feeding facility;
(3) Direct contact swimming, washing, or spray cooling of animals;
(4) Dust control.
(AA) "Process waste water" means any process generated waste water and any precipitation, including rain or snow, that comes into contact with manure, litter, bedding, or any other raw material or intermediate or final material or product used in or resulting from the production of animals or direct products such as milk or eggs.
(BB) "Production area" means any of the following components of an animal feeding facility:
(1) Animal confinement areas, including, but not limited to, open lots, housed lots, feedlots, confinement houses, stall barns, free stall barns, milkrooms, milking centers, cowyards, barnyards, medication pens, animal walkways, and stables;
(2) Manure storage areas, including, but not limited to, manure storage or treatment facilities;
(3) Raw material storage areas, including, but not limited to, feed silos, silage bunkers, commodity buildings, and bedding materials;
(4) Waste containment areas, including, but not limited to, any of the following:
(a) An egg washing or egg processing facility;
(b) An area used in the storage, handling, treatment, or disposal of mortalities;
(c) Settling basins, runoff ponds, liquid impoundments, and areas within berms and diversions that are designed and maintained to separate uncontaminated storm water runoff from contaminated water and to contain and treat contaminated storm water runoff.
(CC) "Public meeting" means a nonadversarial public hearing at which a person may present written or oral statements for the director of agriculture's consideration and includes public hearings held under section 6111.12 of the Revised Code.
(DD) "Rule" means a rule adopted under section 903.10 of the Revised Code.
(EE) "Small concentrated animal feeding operation" means an animal feeding facility that is not a large or medium concentrated animal feeding operation and that is designated by the director as a small concentrated animal feeding operation pursuant to rules.
(FF) "Waters of the state" has the same meaning as in section 6111.01 of the Revised Code.