Manure Manager

News
Of lawsuits and spills


April 24, 2008  by  Marg Land

The Community Association for Restoration of the
Environment (CARE) is suing the
DeRuyter Brothers
Dairy in Outlook, WA,
for the second time, alleging the dairy is violating the Clean Air Act.

They’re back.

Ten years after originally filing suit against the DeRuyter Brothers Dairy in Outlook, WA, the Community Association for Restoration of the Environment (CARE) is suing the farm again, alleging the dairy operators are violating the Clean Air Act.

According to reports in the Tri-City Herald and Yakima Herald , officials with CARE are claiming that dairy owner Jake DeRuyter failed to obtain permits required under the Clean Air Act when he expanded his 6,300-cow operation in 2002.

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Back in the late 1990s, CARE sued the DeRuyter dairy under the Clean Water Act. While farm officials agreed to settle, paying more than $500,000, they admitted no wrong doing in the settlement.

This newest lawsuit comes almost a year after the Western Environmental Law Center, based in Eugene, Ore., threatened to sue dairies in Washington and Nevada under the Clean Air Act, alleging they needed state and federal permits for methanol emissions.

Not all the news is doom and gloom in manure management. An official with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) was full of praise for farm workers after a 400 to 600 gallon manure spill near Modoc, IN.

The IDEM public information officer said the workers did a very good job responding to the spill doing “everything they needed to do,” according to a report in the Winchester News-Gazette .

The spill was caused by a hose break. Dams were installed to contain the spill and pumping equipment was used to remove manure from a nearby creek.

Since the spill was reported and addressed right away, IDEM will likely not pursue actions against the operation.

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