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Saturday, April 14, 2007

Environment - Still more on: Two CAFO stories today

Rebecca S. Green of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports today:

A Huntington County dairy suspected of leaking manure into an area waterway was no longer operating under the terms of a 2004 settlement with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

The DeGroot Dairy, 8378 W. County Road 200 S., is currently the subject of an IDEM investigation after a report that manure had fouled about a half-mile of a creek that flows into the Salamonie Reservoir this week. Attorneys for the dairy say that neither their nor IDEM’s investigations have linked the manure found in the George W. Young drain to DeGroot’s cows.

After two manure spills in 11 days at the 1,400-cow farm, dairy operator Johannes DeGroot entered into an agreement with IDEM in 2004 that resulted in a $45,000 payment that was split between IDEM and the state attorney general’s office.

As part of the agreement, DeGroot was to hire an independent contractor to apply manure on nearby fields and handle pumping manure from storage structures, emptying sand pits, keeping records and monitoring drainage ditches in the area. That part of the agreement expired March 1, 2006, IDEM spokeswoman Amy Hartsock said.

The investigation into this week’s spill continues, she said.

To clean up Tuesday’s spill, workers dammed the creek before the waste flowed into the reservoir and then pumped out the contaminated water. The agency also announced its intention to do a full compliance inspection of the dairy and would review the spill internally. Any action taken by IDEM could yet involve the dairy’s permit.

DeGroot’s attorney, Peter Racher of Indianapolis, said DeGroot has cooperated fully with IDEM, and IDEM and DeGroot are working to determine where the manure originated. While DeGroot workers applied manure to farm fields in the area last weekend, Racher said, weather and ground conditions were appropriate for the application and manure was applied correctly.

But, Racher said, rain or other weather-related events can cause a runoff and such events can’t be prevented with 100 percent certainty. Tests of the manure found in the creek have not linked it to DeGroot’s cows, Racher said.

The Journal Gazette also has an editorial today titled "Dairy spill pollution." It concludes:
State legislators are just beginning to address the need for better regulation of large livestock operations. In the meantime, environmental management officials need to more stringently monitor offending livestock farms and enforce water pollution regulation.

IDEM Commissioner Thomas Easterly said state regulations require farm owners to prevent animal waste from harming water quality. And he said his staff would “act swiftly to address the serious non-compliance issues at the livestock operations responsible for these emergency spills.”

A strong response is definitely warranted. Better monitoring and prevention of the spills in the first place is also needed.

Earlier ILB entries about the recent spill are here.

See also this March 23rd ILB entry on CAFO legislation then-pending in the General Assembly. It looks like, of the three bills mentioned, only SB 431 is still alive - as of this writing, it has returned from the House with amendments and is awaiting further Senate action.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 14, 2007 01:02 PM
Posted to Environment