Oregon Dairy Receives Fine

 Oregon Dairy Receives Fine. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

The EPA has announced that an Oregon dairy has been fined for alleged Clean Water Act violations according to Tony Brown, Public Affairs Specialist with EPA.

BROWN: On January 12, 2010, EPA and Oregon Department of Agriculture inspectors found that Misty Meadow Dairy was discharging manure-contaminated runoff from the Dry Cow Facility and other process wastewater from the feed loading area, into Dougherty and Hoquarten Sloughs which empty into Tillamook Bay. The discharge of pollutants was not authorized by a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, and therefore was in violation of the Clean Water Act.

Misty Meadow Dairy has agreed to pay a $7,650 penalty to settle the violation.

BROWN: They have taken corrective action to avoid this from happening in the future. They have about 1,700 cows on the facility at this concentrated feeding operation. It’s important that they are following the proper guidelines of the NPDES permit and make sure they’re not having clean water act violations.

Brown says there was no clean up required.

BROWN: The discharge that they had wasn’t significant to have any major impact on those waterways. It could have over a long period of time but luckily it was caught properly at a time where it was - corrective action was made so basically they were able to stop the discharge from occurring and they took corrective action to do that 

It’s important for all producers like Misty Meadow Dairy, to manage their waste and runoff properly.

BROWN: Concentrated animal feeding operations continue to be a leading source of water quality impairment in the United States. Consolidation trends in the livestock industry have resulted in larger-sized operations that generate about 500 million tons of manure annually.

The NPDES permit program, established under the federal Clean Water Act, controls water pollution by regulating sources that discharge pollutants to waters in the United States. Manure and wastewater have the potential to contribute pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus, organic matter, sediments, pathogens, heavy metals, hormones, antibiotics, and ammonia to the environment. Excess nutrients in water such as nitrogen and phosphorus can result in or contribute to fish kills.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.