Public Notice: Opportunity to Comment on Draft Permit and Environmental Assessment for the Maher Cattle Company in South Dakota

Publish Date

August 26, 2025

Summary

The EPA has prepared a draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit under the authority of Section 402 of the Clean Water Act and a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of issuing the NPDES permit for public notice.

Activity

This draft permit is for a new beef cattle feedlot located on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation at Section 22, Township 18 North, Range 24 East, northwest of Timber Lake in Corson County, South Dakota. This feedlot was constructed in August 2019 and has been in operation since January 2020, which is after the applicable new source performance standards for such animal feeding operations went into effect in 2003. As a result, the new source performance standards apply to this feedlot. The issuance of an NPDES permit to a new source is subject to environmental review pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). A draft EA was prepared to evaluate the environmental impacts of this draft permit and to determine whether a finding of no significant impact is warranted or whether preparation of an environmental impact statement is necessary. NEPA § 106(b)(2), 42 U.S.C. § 4336(b)(2); 40 C.F.R. §§ 6.205(a), (b)(2).

The feedlot confines about a total of 10,000 beef cattle and 3,400 background feeder cattle from the yearling lot. If finalized, the permit would require that there shall be no discharge of process wastewater, solid or liquid manure pollutants to waters of the United States except when either chronic or catastrophic rainfall events cause an overflow of process wastewater from the facility that is properly designed, constructed, maintained, and operated to contain all process generated wastewater plus all run-off from a 25 year, 24 hour rainfall event. Authorization for discharge would be limited to only the outfall specifically listed in the draft permit.

Public Comments

The public comment period ends 45 calendar days after the date of publication of this notice. Any interested person may submit written comments on the draft permit or the draft EA. Comments should be directed to Qian Zhang using the contact information in the "How to Comment" box. If you are unable to adequately address comments via email, please reach out to Mr. Zhang by phone to discuss alternative arrangements. All comments received prior to the end of the comment period will be considered in the formulation of any final permit determination and final EA and will be part of the administrative record. Any interested person may request a public hearing and the EPA will hold a hearing if the response to this notice indicates significant public interest. EPA is also requesting comments on the possible adverse effects of reissuing the permit on historic properties and/or cultural resources in the area. EPA is the Clean Water Act (Act) Section 401 certifying authority for this permit, because the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has not received authorization to implement section 303(c) of the Act. EPA is also seeking comment on Section 401 certification considerations.

Permit Availability

The draft permit (including appendices), the statement of basis, and the draft EA are available for download below. The full administrative record – including all data submitted by the applicant – is electronically available upon request for public inspection. For further information, please reach out to Mr. Zhang at the contact information above. Interested parties on our email list will also be notified by email. If you wish to be added to our email list, instructions for joining can be found on Region 8’s NPDES Permit Program webpage.

Permittee

Patrick Maher, Owner/Operator
Maher Cattle Company, LLC
13031 248th Ave.
Timber Lake, SD 57656

Permit Number

SD0034768