The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources is making progress on its rewrite of the general permit requirements for Confined Animal Feeding Operations in the state. The rules were written in 2003 and lapsed in 2009. So the agency is working with farm groups and other interested parties on a revision. Kathy Tyler with Dakota Rural Action says while there are some big improvements in the plan from the original, some tweaking is still required.

Tyler says another positive change is the way manure spills will be handled in the general permit.

She says there are no setback requirements for site locations in the new rules as those are to be set by the county. There are also no mandates regarding manure application on tiled ground.

Monday was the deadline for initial comments to DENR on the draft proposal. The agency will use those suggestions to shape a draft rule and once released and published the public will have 30 days to comment on that proposal. The goal is to have the final rule in place by January 1 of 2016.