The E-P-A must finish drafting new regulation by December 1st that could affect many feedlot operators. The agency’s Ralph Summers says a lawsuit by an environmental group sparked the review, but it was due anyway.He says they haven’t reviewed livestock industry rules since the early 70s, so Summers says it’s high time they did. These are rules aimed at protecting groundwater quality, something that may be covered by state regulations already.A lot of states, including Iowa, have manure-management plans, but they aren’t part of the federal regulations, yet. Several options are on the table, says Summer. One would be lower the threshold of how many animals on a farm require the farmer to get a permit, a number that’s at one-thousand “animal units” right now. If that threshold was lowered to 500 animal units, hundreds of more Iowa farmers would have to get feedlot permits.