Guidelines for Prevention and Control of Pollution from Livestock and Poultry Breeding: Hazards, Responsibilities, Penalties, and Rectifications
The "searchlight" of ecological and environmental protection inspections continues to focus on rural areas and livestock and poultry breeding. In December 2025, the central inspection team reported on rural pollution control issues in places such as Xinji, Langfang, Hebei Province, where the phenomenon of "random and disorderly storage and direct discharge of livestock and poultry manure" was particularly typical. This phenomenon reflects the shortcomings and loopholes in the pollution control of livestock and poultry breeding in some regions, and once again sounds the alarm: the development of livestock and poultry breeding must not be at the expense of the ecological environment. Non-standard manure treatment not only causes multiple pollution to soil, water, and air, disrupting the ecological balance in rural areas, but also exposes farms (households) to severe administrative penalties and even corresponding legal responsibilities, resulting in heavy costs.
On August 12, 2025, the inspection team discovered through a covert investigation that there were multiple unauthorized livestock manure drying sites in Zhangguzhuang Town, Xinji City, Hebei Province. To assist farms (households) in clearly defining the boundaries of compliant farming and effectively avoiding environmental violation risks, this article systematically outlines the core hazards of livestock and poultry farming pollution, the statutory responsibilities of relevant entities, the standards for environmental violation penalties, and the core guidelines for manure treatment, providing comprehensive guidance for farms (households) to achieve green and compliant operations.
1. The four major pollution hazards of livestock and poultry farming
(1) Soil Environmental Damage: The long-term application of untreated livestock manure leads to soil compaction, decreased vitality, salt accumulation, and disruption of soil chemical balance. Pollutants such as copper, zinc, and antibiotics in manure accumulate in the soil, altering the soil microbial community structure and affecting crop growth. More seriously, crops absorb these non-degradable components and enter the human body through the food chain, posing a threat to human health. (2) Water Environmental Deterioration: Livestock manure and aquaculture wastewater contain a large amount of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. When directly discharged into water bodies, it can cause eutrophication, leading to algal blooms, a sharp decrease in dissolved oxygen in the water, deterioration of water quality, and massive fish kills. At the same time, heavy metals, antibiotics, and pathogenic microorganisms in the wastewater enter groundwater through surface runoff or infiltration, threatening the safety of residents' drinking water. (3) Air Environmental Pollution: When livestock manure is randomly piled up, organic pollutants ferment in an anaerobic environment, producing ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and other irritating odors. This not only affects the quality of life of surrounding residents but also inhibits plant growth and destroys soil microbial activity due to high concentrations of ammonia. Greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide emitted during the breeding process also exacerbate global warming. (4) Health Hazards for Humans and Animals: Livestock manure contains a large number of pathogenic microorganisms such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella, as well as parasite eggs. If not treated in time, it can breed a large number of mosquitoes and flies, leading to the spread of pathogens and parasites. Currently, there are about 250 zoonotic diseases globally, and over 120 have been identified in China. These pathogens can be transmitted through feces, wastewater, air, and other routes, significantly increasing the risk of zoonotic disease transmission and directly threatening the health of humans and animals.
II. Legal responsibilities of livestock farms (households)
According to the "Animal Husbandry Law of the People's Republic of China", "Regulations on the Prevention and Control of Pollution from Livestock and Poultry Large-scale Breeding", and other laws and regulations, livestock farms (households) are required to fulfill the following legal obligations: 1. Compliance with construction requirements: Have production sites, facilities, and equipment that match the scale of breeding, be equipped with animal husbandry and veterinary technical personnel, meet epidemic prevention requirements, and build "rain-proof, leakage-proof, and overflow-proof" facilities for the harmless treatment and resource utilization of feces. Key wastewater treatment facilities must meet cement concrete hardening and anti-seepage requirements, and the volume of feces storage tanks must meet at least 60 days of storage needs and be equipped with emergency tanks. 2. Record-filing and licensing management: Actively file the name, address, livestock and poultry breeds and scale of the livestock farm with the local county-level agricultural and rural affairs department, and obtain livestock and poultry identification codes. Large-scale livestock farms with sewage discharge outlets must obtain a sewage discharge permit according to law. Large-scale livestock farms without sewage discharge outlets and livestock farms below the designated scale with sewage discharge outlets must complete sewage discharge permit registration. Without obtaining relevant permits or registration, no pollutants may be discharged. 3. Archives and ledger management: Establish complete breeding archives, specifying the incidence, death, and harmless treatment of livestock and poultry; formulate an annual plan for returning feces to the field, establish a resource utilization ledger, and record in detail the amount of feces produced, feces cleaning process, whereabouts, utilization methods, area of land used for digestion, receiving units, and other information to ensure full traceability. 4. Fulfillment of environmental impact assessment obligations: Newly built, renovated, and expanded livestock farms must conduct environmental impact assessments. Projects with an annual output of more than 5,000 live pigs or involving environmentally sensitive areas must prepare an environmental impact report. Projects with a stock of 500-2,500 live pigs equivalent must fill out an environmental impact registration form. Other livestock and poultry must be converted to pig equivalent according to the specified proportion to determine the environmental impact assessment category. 5. Facilities and disposal responsibilities: Ensure the normal operation of feces treatment facilities, adopt dry feces cleaning processes and anaerobic fermentation treatment methods; if entrusting others to dispose of feces, a commission contract or disposal agreement must be signed to clarify pollution prevention responsibilities; feces returned to the field must undergo harmless treatment, comply with relevant national standards, avoid ecologically sensitive areas, and not be applied in excess.
III. Common Violations and Corresponding Penalties
(1) Administrative Penalties 1. Failure to fulfill filing or archival obligations: Those who fail to file as required, fail to establish breeding archives, or fail to preserve them as required shall be ordered by the competent agricultural and rural departments at or above the county level to make corrections within a specified time limit and may be fined up to 10,000 yuan (in accordance with Article 86 of the Animal Husbandry Law of the People's Republic of China);
1. Failure to file an environmental impact registration form in accordance with the law shall be subject to a fine of up to 50,000 yuan (in accordance with Article 31 of the Environmental Impact Assessment Law of the People's Republic of China). 2. Illegal site selection and construction: Those who construct livestock farms in prohibited areas shall be subject to a fine of between 30,000 yuan and 100,000 yuan, and those who fail to stop within the prescribed time limit shall be ordered to dismantle or close down; those who construct in drinking water protection areas shall be subject to a fine of between 100,000 yuan and 500,000 yuan, and shall be ordered to dismantle or close down (in accordance with Article 37 of the Regulation on the Prevention and Control of Pollution from Livestock and Poultry Breeding). 3. Failure to conduct environmental impact assessment: Those who fail to conduct an environmental impact assessment as required by law shall be ordered to stop construction and complete the necessary procedures within a specified time limit. Those who fail to do so within the prescribed time limit shall be subject to a fine of between 50,000 yuan and 200,000 yuan (in accordance with Article 38 of the Regulation on the Prevention and Control of Pollution from Livestock and Poultry Breeding);
If construction commences without obtaining approval for the environmental impact assessment report in accordance with the law, a fine of 1%-5% of the total investment amount shall be imposed. Refusal to comply shall result in the case being transferred to the public security organ for detention (in accordance with Article 31 of the Environmental Impact Assessment Law of the People's Republic of China). 4. Non-compliance with pollution prevention and control facilities: If no pollution prevention and control supporting facilities are constructed, the facilities are unqualified, feces are not entrusted to others for treatment but are put into production, or the facilities are not operating normally, the production and use shall be ordered to stop, and a fine of up to 100,000 yuan may be imposed (in accordance with Article 39 of the Regulation on the Prevention and Control of Pollution from Livestock and Poultry Breeding);
If environmental protection facilities are put into production without being completed, inspected, or failing to pass the inspection, a fine of not less than 200,000 yuan and not more than 1,000,000 yuan shall be imposed. If the violator fails to make corrections within the prescribed time limit, a fine of not less than 1,000,000 yuan and not more than 2,000,000 yuan shall be imposed, and the responsible person shall be fined not less than 50,000 yuan and not more than 200,000 yuan (in accordance with Article 23 of the Regulations on the Administration of Construction Project Environmental Protection). 5. Illegal discharge: If pollutants are discharged in non-compliance with standards or directly discharged without undergoing harmless treatment, the violator shall be ordered to make corrections within a specified time limit and may be fined not more than 50,000 yuan (in accordance with Article 41 of the Regulations on the Prevention and Control of Pollution from Livestock and Poultry Breeding);
Those who discharge pollutants without obtaining a pollutant discharge permit shall be fined between 200,000 yuan and 1 million yuan, and those with serious circumstances shall be ordered to suspend operations or close down (in accordance with Article 33 of the Regulation of the People's Republic of China on the Administration of Pollutant Discharge Permits);
Those who fail to fill in the pollutant discharge registration form as required may be fined up to 50,000 yuan (in accordance with Article 37 of the Regulation of the People's Republic of China on the Administration of Pollutant Discharge Permits);
Those who fail to take measures to prevent the emission of malodorous gases shall be fined between RMB 10,000 and RMB 100,000. Those who refuse to make corrections shall be ordered to suspend work for rectification (in accordance with Article 117 of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People's Republic of China). 6. Violation of Harmless Treatment: Those who fail to dispose of infected or diseased livestock and poultry waste in accordance with regulations shall be ordered by the animal health supervision agency to conduct harmless treatment, with the required expenses borne by the violator, and may be fined up to RMB 3,000 (in accordance with Article 42 of the Regulation on the Prevention and Control of Pollution from Livestock and Poultry Breeding).
(2) If any of the following acts occurs in administrative detention and does not constitute a crime, the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible persons shall be detained for 5-15 days (in accordance with Article 63 of the Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China):
1. Construction projects that have not undergone environmental impact assessment in accordance with the law and have been ordered to stop construction but refuse to do so;
2. Those who discharge pollutants without obtaining a pollutant discharge permit and refuse to comply with the order to stop discharging;
3. Illegally discharging pollutants through concealed pipes, seepage wells, tampering with monitoring data, or other means to evade supervision;
4. Those who produce and use pesticides explicitly prohibited by the state and refuse to comply with the order to make corrections.
(III) Criminal accountability 1. Crime of illegal occupation of agricultural land: Whoever violates land management regulations, illegally occupies farmland, forest land, or other agricultural land for breeding, changes the land use and the amount involved is relatively large, causing substantial damage to agricultural land, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention, and shall be fined concurrently or independently (in accordance with Article 342 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China). 2. Crime of environmental pollution: Whoever, in violation of state regulations, discharges or dumps toxic substances or other harmful substances, causing serious environmental pollution, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall be fined concurrently or independently;
If the circumstances are serious, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years and shall be fined;
In particularly serious cases, such as discharging pollutants in key areas like drinking water protection zones, causing damage to permanent basic farmland, or resulting in casualties, the offender shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not less than seven years and shall also be fined (in accordance with Article 338 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China).
IV. Rectification requirements after receiving the rectification notice
After the environmental protection inspector issues a rectification notice, the livestock farms (households) need to take effective measures in a timely manner to avoid escalating penalties or the risk of demolition. The specific directions for rectification are as follows: 1. Verification of violations: Compare the issues identified in the rectification notice with the statutory responsibility requirements, and investigate the violations one by one, including whether the site selection is illegal, whether the environmental impact assessment and pollution discharge permit are complete, whether the facilities are operating normally, whether the records are complete, and whether the fecal disposal is compliant. Identify the key points for rectification. 2. Targeted rectification measures: For those with illegal site selection, if they are located in prohibited areas, they need to be shut down or relocated within a specified time limit as required; if they are located in secondary water source protection areas and can achieve zero emissions, they need to improve the facilities for harmless treatment and returning of feces to the field, and submit proof of zero emissions to apply for retention.
In case of missing environmental impact assessment, record filing, or pollutant discharge permit, immediately apply to the relevant departments for re-application procedures, fill in the record filing information, or apply for a pollutant discharge permit. During this period, suspend the relevant illegal production activities.
For facilities that do not meet the standards, a deadline should be set for the construction or upgrading of fecal treatment facilities to ensure they meet the requirements of seepage prevention, rainproofing, and odor control. Sufficient land for disposal and irrigation equipment should be provided, and for those that entrust treatment, a standardized agreement should be signed retroactively.
For those who violate the regulations on pollution discharge, they must immediately stop the act of secret discharge and direct discharge, repair pollution prevention and control facilities, and adopt harmless treatment methods such as anaerobic fermentation and composting to ensure that pollutants are discharged in compliance with standards or utilized as resources.
If the records are incomplete, the breeding archives and feces utilization records shall be supplemented and improved as required to ensure that the data is authentic, the information is complete, and it is traceable. 3. Strengthen process management: During the rectification period, keep records of facility operation and feces disposal, regularly conduct self-inspection on the effectiveness of rectification; proactively connect with departments such as the ecological environment, agriculture, and rural areas, timely report the progress of rectification, and accept verification and guidance. 4. Establish a long-term mechanism: After the rectification is completed, establish a normalized environmental management mechanism, regularly maintain pollution prevention and control facilities, standardize record-keeping, strictly implement the requirements for harmless treatment and resource utilization of feces, and avoid further violations.