SWINE Act

Swine Waste Infrastructure and Natural Environment Act or the SWINE Act

This bill establishes a program to certify environmentally sustainable swine waste disposal technologies and authorizes related tax credits and grants.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) must certify technologies that:

• eliminate animal discharge into surface waters and groundwater through direct discharge, seepage, or runoff;
• substantially eliminate atmospheric emissions of ammonia from swine waste;
• substantially eliminate the emission of odor from swine waste that is detectable beyond the boundaries of the parcel or tract of land on which the swine farm is located;
• substantially eliminate the release of disease-transmitting vectors and airborne pathogens from swine waste;
• substantially eliminate nutrient and heavy metal contamination of soil and groundwater from swine waste; and
• are cost-effective.

States may not issue permits, pursuant to any federal law, to a swine farm that is a concentrated animal feeding operation unless the farm disposes of swine waste using a certified technology.

The bill amends several agricultural laws to:

• require USDA to make competitive grants for activities to identify, evaluate, and demonstrate environmentally superior swine waste management technologies;
• permit the Pork Promotion Board to use its funding for activities related to the grants; and
• make the installation and maintenance of a certified technology on a swine farm eligible for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

The bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow tax credits for: (1) the installation of a certified swine waste disposal technology, and (2) the disposal of swine waste using certified technology.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov