Answering a court-imposed deadline, the Bush administration issued a weak final rule to limit runoff from livestock waste at large factory farms, which produce 220 billion gallons of liquefied manure each year.

The rule waters down a previous Clinton-era proposal, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Washington Post, by reducing the number of affected operations by more than half; allowing factory farms to write their own permit conditions; and limiting the liability of major corporations for illegal spills by their subcontractors.