Dairy CAFO spill May 4 only one of many

May 4 Manure Spill At Bear Creek Dairy Is Only The Latest In A Long String Of Equipment Failures At Large Confinements When Toxic Waste Is Pumped From Shallow Pits Into Deep Lagoons

Iowa CCI members say DNR’s draft Clean Water Act permitting rules must mandate tougher environmental standards for every factory farm in Iowa in order to crack down on water pollution and prevent future spills from happening

A May 4 manure spill into Big Bear Creek from a 2,000-head dairy confinement near Brooklyn in Poweshiek County was at least the fourth manure spill since October 31, 2013 caused by equipment failure during the transport of manure from a shallow pit into a deep lagoon, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) members said Wednesday.

The repeated incidents across the state in recent months underscore the danger that all factory farms pose to Iowa’s water quality, especially older confinements housing thousands of hogs or cattle that use deep-pit manure storage systems and are heavily reliant on pipes and pumps prone to mechanical breakdowns.

“The Bear Creek Dairy manure spill is proof that every factory farm in Iowa is a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off.  A spill can happen at any time at any facility,” said Jim Yungclas, a retired ag extension officer who moved to Grinnell after factory farms surrounded his family’s century farm in Wright County.

“The DNR must start issuing Clean Water Act permits to every factory farm in Iowa so the industry is forced to start playing by stronger environmental standards.  Repeat offenders should be forced to de-populate or get shut down,” Yungclas continued.

The Bear Creek Dairy Farm manure spill was discovered around 6am May 4 and was caused by a plugged pipe between a manure storage tank and a bigger lagoon, causing the tank to fill up and then overflow.  The discharge into Big Bear Creek could have been ongoing for hours as the pumping system was active but unattended throughout the night of May 3 and into the morning of May 4.On January 20, an Iowa Select factory farm near Dows on the Wright/Franklin County border that confines 16,000 nursery pigs spilled more than 1,000 gallons of liquid manure into the Iowa River.  The spill occurred when a pipe broke during the pumping of liquid manure from the shallow pits beneath the confinements into an open-air lagoon located nearby.

On November 4, 2013 a Maschhoff Pork factory farm near Keosauqua in Van Buren County that confines 7,500 sows spilled thousands of gallons of manure into a tributary of the Des Moines River.  The spill occurred when a pipe broke during the pumping of liquid manure from the shallow pits beneath the confinements into an open-air lagoon located nearby.

On October 31, 2013 a Roanoke LLC sow confinement near Coon Rapids in Audubon County spilled more than 5,000 gallons of manure into an unnamed tributary of the Raccoon River after a pipe broke during the pumping of liquid manure from the shallow pits beneath the confinements into a deeper pit.

Yesterday, Iowa CCI members released a video by a member in Northeast Iowa that documents an ongoing manure discharge from a mixed cattle feedlot/confinement into the Wapsipinicon River.  The case is notable because the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) allowed the operator of Oak Grove Cattle to build an earthen berm in lieu of obtaining a Clean Water Act permit after a similar spill last year.  But it was the new berm that failed during heavy rainfall two weeks ago and led to another discharge into the Wapsi.

Nearly two dozen Iowa CCI members in North-central Iowa attended a DNR-sponsored public hearing in Mason City last night organized to solicit comments from everyday Iowans on draft Clean Water Act rules that CCI members have criticized as being too weak and industry-friendly.

“What Governor Branstad’s DNR is allowing these out of state factory farm corporations to do to our water quality is shameful,” said Phyllis Willis, an independent family hog farmer from Fertile, Iowa who testified in Mason City last night.

“This rule has to be stronger, because this hands-off, bare minimum approach of the Branstad Administration hasn’t worked in the past and it will not work in the future.”

Iowa CCI members say the draft Clean Water Act rule granting the DNR explicit permitting authority over factory farm polluters can be strengthened in five major ways:

1)       The rule should clearly state that all factory farm polluters must receive a Clean Water Act permit that forces them to abide by stronger environmental standards or get shut down.  Both Minnesota and Wisconsin require all factory farms to obtain federal operating permits.

2)      The rule should include a “three strikes and you’re out” provision for habitual violators so Iowans can shut down the worst of the worst polluters.

3)      The rule should clearly state that factory farm polluters have a “duty to apply” and that the burden of proof assuring pollution will not happen again lies with the polluter, not the DNR or the people of Iowa.

4)      The rule should strengthen technical and water quality standards governing how manure is disposed of on farm fields in ways that decrease the risk of over-application and runoff.

5)      The rule should require the DNR to build a comprehensive, user-friendly, online database of manure spills, Clean Water Act inspections, and permitting, so that everyday Iowans can audit the   DNR’s inspections and permitting decisions and hold them accountable if they continue to kowtow to the factory farm industry.

There have been at least 728 documented manure spills since 1996 and Iowa currently has at least 630 polluted waterways, according to DNR records.  Some researchers have found that manure from factory farm lagoons is leaking at more than twice the rate allowed by law, and it’s anyone’s guess how many times rainwater, floods, or melting snow have run freshly spread liquid manure off of farmland and into rivers, lakes, and streams.

Des Moines Water Works has also reported some ammonia problems already this spring that the water utility says “often” comes from “livestock operations” and “manure-fertilized fields”.  Last year, Des Moines Water Works spent nearly $1 million removing nitrates from drinking water drawn from the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers.

Factory farm expansion is also up, with nearly one thousand of the state’s 8,500 factory farms being built since January 1, 2012.   Iowa’s 21 million hogs produce nearly ten billion gallons of toxic manure every year.

Iowa CCI is a statewide, grassroots people’s action group that uses community organizing to win public policy that puts communities before corporations and people before profits, politics, and polluters.