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Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Environment - IDEM to act against Randolph County and Huntington CAFOs

Seth Slabaugh of the Muncie StarPress reports:

WINCHESTER -- The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has issued a notice of violation and a proposed agreed order to Union-Go Dairy stemming from a manure release into Sparrow Creek on April 3.

The notice accuses the concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) at 3518 S. Randolph County Road 300-W of violating environmental management laws, water pollution laws and its permit. * * *

[A] letter sent to the dairy farm from Dave Knox of IDEM's enforcement office stated the proposed order included a preliminary civil penalty figure for settlement discussion purposes only.

"A portion of the civil penalty may be offset by performing an approved Supplemental Environmental Project," Knox wrote. "Typical SEPs have included pollution prevention, pollution control and environmental restoration projects.

"The timely entry into an agreed order, which saves you and IDEM time and resources, may lead to a reduction in the civil penalty."

Union-Go, owned and operated by Dutch immigrants Tony and Yvonne Goltstein, also has been cited at least twice by IDEM for failing to maintain the required minimum freeboard of two feet in a lagoon holding 20 millions gallons of manure. * * *

Meanwhile, a judge has prohibited a rural Huntington County Dutch dairy CAFO owned by Johannes DeGroot from spreading manure onto fields in the area. DeGroot will be required to either pump and haul the manure to a waste treatment facility or hire a third-party "custom manure applicator" to manage the manure generated at the farm.

Besides suing, IDEM revoked DeGroot's operating permit after manure was found in a creek near the dairy on April 9 and 11. DeGroot has appealed the revocation of the permit.

Union-Go is mentioned in these earlier ILB entries. The most recent ILB about DeGroot is from June 16th.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 26, 2007 09:09 AM
Posted to Environment