South Dakota
Feedlot Permit Program
The Feedlot Permit Program of the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) runs the state's Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) program. DANR says EPA gave South Dakota authority over the program in December 1993. The program's main jobs, as DANR lists them, are protecting the state's surface water and groundwater, carrying out the federal Clean Water Act rules and the state's general water pollution control permit rules for CAFOs, and carrying out the state's on-site wastewater system rules.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name livestock operation permits among its standard record sources. A permitted operation's file can still say where manure was stored and spread, which bears on a farm property or a neighbor of one.
- Which operations need coverage. DANR defines a CAFO as a lot or facility that confines and feeds animals for 45 days or more in any 12 months and meets its size criteria for a large, medium or small operation, set by animal type. A large operation, for example, means 1,000 or more cattle other than mature dairy cows or veal calves. A medium operation counts only if it discharges in certain ways, and small ones only if the Secretary designates them. DANR says the definition leaves out pastured livestock and most wintering areas.
- What the permit requires on the ground. DANR's page lists among the general permit's requirements storage for at least 270 days of manure and wastewater at new structures and 180 days at existing ones, earthen storage lined with at least 18 inches of compacted clay (or a synthetic or concrete liner), soil borings beneath containment structures, groundwater monitoring or a groundwater discharge permit for operations over shallow aquifers, and setbacks for lagoons and manure application areas of 1,000 feet from public drinking water supplies, 250 feet from a private well and 150 feet from the producer's own well. The same section sets deadlines that ran to 2006 and does not say which edition of the permit it describes; the page links both a 2003 and a 2017 General Permit.
- What the producer keeps and reports. The producer must keep records of soil and manure tests and of manure applications, inspect the manure containment weekly, keep inspection records for five years, and report any discharge to DANR within 24 hours. Ask whether the file holds discharge reports and DANR's inspection reports.
- How often DANR inspects. DANR says it inspects each new operation at least once during construction and once in its first 18 months, the larger operations at least once a year, the others at least once every three years, and in response to complaints.
- A sale moves the permit. DANR says the permit must be transferred to a new owner or operator, that the department should have 30 days' notice before a sale, and that any water right or groundwater discharge permit must be transferred too.
DANR's page, in a passage written about two years after the reissue process began in April 2015, says the general permit was reissued after a contested case hearing in 2016 and the Secretary's final findings of March 10, 2017, which were not appealed. The same page says a general permit runs five years before it must be renewed; the pages read do not say whether it has been renewed since.
Where to look a site up
- DANR's Site Planning Maps page links a map titled DANR Permitted Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, which DANR says shows where livestock operations have obtained permit coverage. This handbook did not open it. DANR says it can give information on facilities that are approved but not yet permitted.
- The pages read print the program's contacts only under staff names. DANR's headquarters is at (605) 773-3151, and its mailbox is DANRmail@state.sd.us.
Getting the file
DANR's page footer links Request Public Records, an address on the state's sd.gov portal that this handbook did not open. The pages read do not say where feedlot permit files are kept or what a request must include.
Sources
South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown: