PUBLIC HEALTH LAW—REMEDYING AND REGULATING THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF SUBTHERAPEUTIC DOSING OF LIVESTOCK WITH ANTIBIOTICS: CAN THE EPA’S IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CLEAN WATER ACT REIGN IN THE PROBLEM?

The way in which the United States has come to practice agriculture has changed drastically over the past century. As urban populations have grown and rural populations dwindled, research focused on raising production levels and decreasing costs led to the increasingly common practice of low-dose and long-term application of antibiotics to animals being raised for slaughter. Such use of antibiotics continues to have far-reaching consequences impacting human, animal, and environmental health and wellness. This article examines the fractured federal oversight of the use of antibiotics in industrial agriculture and proposes an interpretation of provisions of the Clean Water Act as a mechanism for mitigation.