Friends:
Last night at a
DEQ hearing on the proposed individual CAFO NPDES permit for the Liberty Dairy
in Orleans, Ionia County proposed by Timothy den Dulk and associates, 100
people listened intently as their neighbors and two neighbors of the Hartford
Dairy CAFO, built by the applicants in Van Buren County last year, provided
exceptionally well researched and argued comments in opposition to the
proposal. Of the 12 who testified, 9 provided substantive testimony about
the severely flawed permit, 1 testified in favor of the facility, and 2 who
spoke at the end stated that they had not made up their minds about this before
coming, but after listening to the extensive documentation they had learned a
great deal. I have to say it was one of the most impressive
compilation of reasons for the DEQ to deny a permit that I have ever
seen. Among the facts raised (and if I get these wrong, its because I was
scribbling and don’t have their written comments):
-
All the wells in
the village of Orleans, which is right next to the proposed site, are very
shallow, less than 50’ deep, and quite a few just a few feet deep
-
There is no water
consumption projection, and previous irrigation projects in the area have
sucked wells dry
-
The well head
protection plan for the city of Ionia, just released this month, shows that the
city’s drinking water is coming from an aquifer that is just one mile
from this site and that there is a “very high source
susceptibility” for this essential water source for the city
-
The den Dulk
application claims they have secured sufficient acreage to handle 97% of the
wastes produced by the operation sustainably, a claim challenged several ways:
o
Not all the land
identified has been secured with contracts, so should not be counted
o
Many of the acres
involved have tested out at levels of phosphates and nitrates that should
exclude them from CAFO waste disposal – specifically the Liberty Dairy
supposedly owns 1,500 acres for waste disposal, but only 400 acres are
currently usable
o
According to
literature on how much land would be needed for waste disposal for a
“sustainable” operation, the amount den Dulk proposes is one-third
what would be needed
-
The application
includes a large amount of information that is just flat wrong, or inconsistent
within the application itself or with other sources of information. Among
those inconsistencies are:
o
Wrong 24 hour/25
year rainfall number
o
Setbacks
differing by 400’ in different documents
o
Failure to list
all neighbors
o
Moving calf
hutches
o
Differing numbers
of acres owned by the facility for spreading
o
Executive Summary
requires extensive information about where waste will be spread and in what
quantities, which is not included
o
A complete CNMP
was submitted in June 2004 to the MDA, but the application says the CNMP will
not be completed until the fall of 2005
o
Significant
amounts of information in the 6/04 CNMP conflicts with the information in the
application
o
Claim that the
facility has received “approval” by MDA for the location of the
site under the Site Selection GAAMPs is not true – a draft letter has
been issued, but approval will not be given until the facility is actually
constructed. This also means that the siting GAAMPs are totally bogus
because they were intended to assure that CAFOs receive prior approval before
construction to eliminate conflicts with neighbors
-
The den
Dulk’s propose to use grassy waterways to clean manure laden wastes from
waste running off the calf hutch area directly into fields, but that
won’t work in winter and these are not intended to provide that kind of
treatment
-
The site is
almost certainly in violation of the siting GAAMPS, being located within the
same section as the village
of Orleans with a large
number of residences near the facility
-
Not all of the receiving
waters for this facility are identified in the application, as is required
-
Groundwater
protection is entirely ignored
-
The
Anti-degradation statement attached to the application makes unsubstantiated
claims about creating new jobs, no impact on property values, increasing
consumption of local goods, etc.
-
The track record
of other den Dulk facilities has been bad including
o
Clean Water Act
violations at the Hartford Dairy CAFO within 2.5 months of starting up
o
Dead cow disposal
at the Greenville
facility amounted to dragging dead cows behind trees on the property, with no
evidence of intention to address this
o
Horrible fly
problems at Hartford
are interfering with local businesses, which are considering leaving the area
because of the problems
-
The proposed
permit, like those for Z-Star Dairy CAFO in Huron County,
Hartford Dairy CAFO in Van Buren County and the General Permit for the state,
violate the Clean Water Act in a variety of ways, most specifically by not
requiring that the CNMP be included and made available to the public.
The one supporter
of the proposal recited the claims made by the applicant about being good
neighbors, adding to the economy, etc.
Of the two who
learned a lot at the meeting, one said his neighbors had clearly done their
homework, that DEQ should take a very long look at this, and that “I am a
farmer, been here all my life, and I want to be able to face these people with
a good straight face.” The second said this hearing had been
somewhat of a “come to Jesus” experience on this issue, and he was
going to have to go home and think long and hard about this whole proposal.
A Grand Rapids
Press article at http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1109173613179740.xml was short,
but unfortunately again the DEQ official stated that despite all the severe
problems identified, that he didn’t expect them to turn down the
application. I have to say, it sure makes it sound like the DEQ has no
intention of EVER rejecting a CAFO permit, if this one is not turned down!!
Anne Woiwode
_________________________________________________________________________
Anne Woiwode, Director, Sierra Club Mackinac
Chapter
109
East Grand River Avenue,
Lansing, MI 48906
517-484-2372, fax 517-484-3108 www.michigan.sierraclub.org
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