RSSObscure rule on manure stirs controversy
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The state Board of Health is considering scrapping a little-known rule that prohibits the accumulation of manure in places where it might harm water quality, such as groundwater used by private well owners.
"It's an old rule so it's time we looked at it," said Ned Therien, health policy analyst with the state board in Olympia.
But citizen groups that oppose large, concentrated livestock operations, particularly dairies, say the rule could be a powerful tool to regulate what they believe is a major source of contamination in many rural, Lower Yakima Valley wells.
Jan Whitefoot, spokeswoman for Concerned Citizens for the Yakama Reservation, said state and local health officials should have been using the rule all along to protect groundwater.
"I feel betrayed. Health officials are supposed to be working with us on clean-water issues and not once did they tell us they had this kind of jurisdiction," Whitefoot said Monday in a telephone interview.
Whitefoot and Community Association for the Restoration of the Environment (CARE) of Granger have been trying to directly link dairy manure from storage lagoons and application as fertilizer to high levels of nitrates in many private wells.
So far, water-quality officials with local, state and federal government agencies have declined to single out dairies, saying commercial fertilizer, faulty septic systems and old wells are also sources of the problem.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been leading a months-long task force that is close to recommending solutions to a water-quality problem that for years has been plaguing many poor, rural residents dependent on unregulated wells.
The Board of Health rule is under a section of the Washington Administrative Code titled "Keeping of animals." It says in part that, "Manure shall not be allowed to accumulate in any place where it prejudicially affects any source of drinking water."
The three-part rule requires "any person, firm or corporation" from keeping animals in a manner that constitutes a nuisance. In "populous districts," waste is supposed to be contained in a water-tight pit or chamber and removed once a week during the warm months of the year.
Local health districts enforce the rules of the state Board of Health.
Gordon Kelly, environmental health director for the Yakima Health District, said the rule is aimed at preventing nuisance situations at hobby farms, not large-scale commercial operations.
"This is used almost exclusively where you have a neighbor with a few pigs and you don't want the manure accumulating," Kelly said.
What's more, said Therien of the state board, the state departments of Ecology and Agriculture appear to have more specific authority over large livestock operations and their manure-management practices.
But Citizens for Sustainable Development of Monroe, Wash., in Snohomish County, which is battling an expansion by a dairy farm there, states that only the health board and its local jurisdictions have an explicit duty to protect the public against hazards posed by agricultural sewage.
The controversy started with a letter to the health board earlier this summer from the Washington Association of Conservation Districts, which asked that one part of the rule be amended.
John Larson, executive director, said the association's member district in Clark County found the provision requiring removal of manure once a week inconsistent with current science. He said the case grew out of a horse farm, not a large livestock operation.
The health board will convene a work group this fall to study the matter, Therien said.
* Leah Beth Ward can be reached at 509-577-7626 or lward@yakimaherald.com.
More cowardly non-action by the state health department. It should be obvious that these mercenary public servants are only concerned with pleasing the greedy owners of these monster feedlot and dairy operations. What is this 1970?
The EPA knows that these billion gallon @#$% lagoons are seeping into the ground water as well as the Yakima river. It is really an interesting coincidence that these liquid cow crap storage facilities tend to empty out every time the Yakima river turns a little cloudy. The ground water here is poisoned with nitrates and cow growth hormones and anyone drinking water near a dairy is insane.
The Legislature recognizes that enforcment of this WAC is vital. In fact, it is a CRIMINAL OFFENSE for government employees to fail to enforce Health Department regulations. See RCW 43.20.050(5) http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=43.20.050
"All local boards of health, health authorities and officials, officers of state institutions, police officers, sheriffs, constables, and all other officers and employees of the state, or any county, city, or township thereof, shall enforce all rules adopted by the state board of health. In the event of failure or refusal on the part of any member of such boards or any other official or person mentioned in this section to so act, he or she shall be subject to a fine of not less than fifty dollars, upon first conviction, and not less than one hundred dollars upon second conviction."
You can hire an attorney to file a writ of mandamus to FORCE your local officials to enforce this regulation. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandamus
Experience has shown that we can't rely on the Depts. of Agriculture or Ecology to protect our wellwater. If you are worried about being poisoned by toxic dairy sewage, please write to the state Department of Health and urge them to retain and enforce WAC 246-203-130 as it is written. The email address of Ned Therien, the DOH staffer quoted in the article, is Ned.Therien@DOH.WA.GOV. The email address of the Director of the Dept. of Health, Craig McLaughlin, is Craig.McLaughlin@DOH.WA.GOV. Demand that they retain and enforce the WAC, and ask to be made a party of record. If you'd like a sample letter with citations and references, send an email to sdsociety@rocketmail.com. We can't let them get away with this! These massive factory farms are poisoning our children and ruining our environment. The Department of Health can't be permitted to abdicate its responsibilty to protect well water from dairy sewage.
Report ViolationWAC 246-203-130 is applicable to dairy farms of ANY SIZE, and in ANY LOCATION (both "populous districts" and "isolated premises"). This proves that when the rule was enacted, the Board of Health recognized that dairies pose a special and unique hazard to public health. Only dairies are required to abide by the requirements of the rule under all circumstances. And yet the Department of Health is now baselessly claiming that the rule has been "superseded" or that dairy sewage does not really pose a serious threat to public health. Both contentions are laughable.
It's already established that the other agencies that the Dept. of Health (DOH) wants to rely on (Agriculture and Ecology) will not protect the public health from dairy sewage. WSDA's mandate is to promote and facilitate agriculture, not to protect the public health. And the best that can be said of Ecology is that it has competing mandates: to enable industry and (a distant second) to protect public health. Only DOH has as its sole objective the protection of public health - and this DOH rule is the last and only hope for protecting the regular citizens of Washington from the ravages of the dairy industry. All the other regulatory agencies have been co-opted by industry lobbyists or rendered powerless by bought-and-paid for legislators.
The Department of Health is either naive or disingenuous when it asserts that the Departments of Agriculture and Ecology will protect the public from the devastating health hazards posed by massive dairy agribusinesses. As the residents of Yakima Valley can attest, WSDA and the Dept. of Ecology have utterly failed to protect drinking water from factory farming operations. Thus the Department of Health has no absolutely no excuse for abdicating its public-health responsibilities in favor of alternatives that are PROVEN to endanger the public.
It's no accident that the proposed amendment/repeal of the Health Department regulation is sponsored by the Washington Conservation Commission. In my opinion, that agency is nothing more than a rabidly partisan proponent of the farming industry. The Commission's website explains "We... help citizens protect renewable resources through the use of proven, incentive-based practices." To me, that means that the Commission offers rewards - financial and otherwise - to farmers in an alleged effort to reduce the farmers' destruction of public resources. That's hardly a model we can rely on to protect public health.
Protecting drinking water is mandatory, not optional.
Part of WAC 246-203-130 requires manure to be covered.
Gordon Kelly, environmental health director for the Yakima Health District, claims that WAC 246-203-130 is aimed at preventing nuisance situations at hobby farms, not large-scale commercial operations.
But does that make the SLIGHTEST bit of sense? According to Kelly's logic, it's important to cover small amounts of manure to protect the public's health. But multi-acre, multi-million gallon lakes of sewage are magically disease-free and need not be covered at all.
Why would the Board of Health require small amounts of manure to be covered, but not large amounts of manure? If small amounts of exposed manure pose a health risk - which is obviously the case, or the regulation would not have been enacted in the first place - how much greater is the risk posed by hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic, infectious, antibiotic-resistant cow feces?
Billions upon billions of disease-carrying flies are spread from these putrid lakes of sewage. Toxic gasses are given off. Contagious bacteria is swept downwind. Vermin such as rats and mice feed on it and spread their disease-ridden filth throughout the surrounding area. Obviously, they must be covered to protect the public health.
It's important to note that WAC 246-203-130 singles out dairy farms for particular attention. It requires that "Manure on farms or isolated premises OTHER THAN DAIRY FARMS" need not be covered or kept in watertight conditions.
In other words, ALL DAIRIES MUST COVER THEIR TOXIC LAKES OF SEWAGE in order to protect the public from contagious disease vectors.
See the regulation here: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=246-203-130
The most prestigious and influential public health organization in the United States (The American Public Health Association, or APHA), is so concerned about the dire health hazards posed by massive livestock operations that it has called for a NATIONWIDE MORATORIUM on their construction.
See APHA Policy No. 20037, online at http://www.apha.org/advocacy/policy/policysearch/default.htm?id=1243
In this statement, the APHA warns that agricultural sewage is exceptionally toxic and infectious:
"[Dairy] manure [contains] heavy metals, antibiotics, pathogen bacteria, nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as dust, mold, bacterial endotoxins and volatile gases;... manure pathogens capable of causing severe gastrointestinal disease, complications, and sometimes death in humans include Campylobacter and Salmonella species, as well as Listeria monocytogenes, Helicobacter pylori, and E coli O157:H7, and the protozoa Cryptosporidium parvum. Runoff from manure-applied fields can carry human pathogens into surface waters, which often serve as drinking water sources. Epidemiology studies have, in fact, linked several outbreaks involving these pathogens to livestock waste; and
manure land application in excess of the land’s absorptive capacity also can lead to excess nitrogen and phosphorus in soil, eutrophication of surface waters and algae overgrowth——including some algaes producing human toxins."
"The emerging scientific consensus is that antibiotics given to food animals contribute to antibiotic resistance transmitted to humans. Antibiotics, as well as arsenic and other metal compounds, are routinely added to the feeds of concentrated animals... increasing the risks from antibiotic resistance. These routine, non-therapeutic animal uses account for an estimated 13 million pounds of antibiotics annually, most being identical or very similar to human medicines,... An estimated 25–75 percent of feed antibiotics pass unchanged into manure waste, posing additional risks to soil, water and air quality and public health following land application."
The APHA vigorously condemns the very manure storage protocols that the Washington Dept. of Health supports:
"[Dairy]manure… is typically stored in open or covered pits or lagoons and later spread or sprayed untreated on nearby cropland, posing additional risks to public health;..."
The APHA reports on a frightening link between agricultural sewage and the rise in 2009 of the deadly antibiotic-resistant swine flu that is now threatening to turn into a global pandemic:
"The April 2009 outbreak of swine flu seems to have started in the town closest to the biggest agribusiness hog factory farm in Mexico. This U.S. owned Concentrated Animal Feeding Organization (CAFO) was set up immediately after NAFTA went into effect. For years, townspeople complained of the stench, contamination of the water, and swarms of flies that infested the town..."
EXCELLENT PBS "Frontline" documentary on agricultural sewage pollution and Puget Sound:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/poisonedwaters/
The hazards of agricultural sewage were recently investigated by the award-winning PBS documentary program “Frontline.” The program, titled “Poisoned Waters”, focused in large part on Puget Sound, and discussed a myriad of ultra-hazardous pollutants that contaminate our water supplies due to agricultural sewage. The entire program can be viewed online here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/poisonedwaters/view/
PLEASE WATCH THIS DOCUMENTARY! IT IS EXCEPTIONALLY INFORMATIVE!
If you love your kids, watch it with them...
Excerpts:
"Through interviews with scientists, environmental activists, corporate executives and average citizens impacted by the burgeoning pollution problem, Smith reveals startling new evidence that today's growing environmental threat comes not from the giant industrial polluters of old, but from chemicals in consumers' face creams, deodorants, prescription medicines and household cleaners that find their way into sewers, storm drains, and eventually into America's waterways and drinking water.
"The environment has slipped off our radar screen because it's not a hot crisis like the financial meltdown, war or terrorism," Smith says. "But pollution is a ticking time bomb. It's a chronic cancer that is slowly eating away the natural resources that are vital to our very lives."
"In Poisoned Waters, Smith speaks with researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), who report finding genetically mutated marine life in the Potomac River. In addition to finding frogs with six legs and other mutations, the researchers have found male amphibians with ovaries and female frogs with male genitalia. Scientists tell FRONTLINE that the mutations are likely caused by exposure to "endocrine disruptors," chemical compounds that mimic the body's natural hormones."
""The endocrine system of fish is very similar to the endocrine system of humans," USGS fish pathologist Vicki Blazer says. "They pretty much have all the same hormone systems as humans, which is why we use them as sort of indicator species. ... We can't help but make that jump to ask the question, 'How are these things influencing people?'"
"The long-term, slow-motion risk is already being spelled out in epidemiologic data, studies -- large population studies," says Dr. Robert Lawrence of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. "There are 5 million people being exposed to endocrine disruptors just in the Mid-Atlantic region, and yet we don't know precisely how many of them are going to develop premature breast cancer, going to have problems with reproduction, going to have all kinds of congenital anomalies of the male genitalia, things that are happening at a broad low level so that they don't raise the alarm in the general public."
"Smith also investigates the state of Puget Sound's environment, where decades of pollution have endangered such species as orca whales, whose carcasses have shown high levels of cancer-causing PCBs."
When is Yakima County going to wake up?
Another polluting factory dairy is listed as trying to go in near Mabton. (In today's Yakima Herald Republic)There will be a public meeting. SEPA reports are a joke! Has the County Planning Dept. tested the water quality and quanity near Mabton? Do they care? No. Our Yakima County officials will give the dairy a go ahead to pollute more water, while the Yakima County Health Dept., WA State Dept. of Ecology, pretend like there is nothing they can do about it. Tom Tebb, Dept. of Ecology says they have no money for water quality. Did you see one Yakima County or government offical apply for stimulus money for cleaning up polluted water? Testing wells? Finding out point source of pollution? No! They do not want to address the disaster here in Yakima county. Please write more letters to the editor and contact any investigative reporters to get national attention for Yakima County, known as the "Mad Cow County."
When is Yakima County going to wake up?
Another polluting factory dairy is listed as trying to go in near Mabton. (In today's Yakima Herald Republic)There will be a public meeting. SEPA reports are a joke! Has the County Planning Dept. tested the water quality and quanity near Mabton? Do they care? No. Our Yakima County officials will give the dairy a go ahead to pollute more water, while the Yakima County Health Dept., WA State Dept. of Ecology, pretend like there is nothing they can do about it. Tom Tebb, Dept. of Ecology says they have no money for water quality. Did you see one Yakima County or government offical apply for stimulus money for cleaning up polluted water? Testing wells? Finding out point source of pollution? No! They do not want to address the disaster here in Yakima county. Please write more letters to the editor and contact any investigative reporters to get national attention for Yakima County, known as the "Mad Cow County."
According to the above article, "The Board of Health rule is under a section of the Washington Administrative Code titled "Keeping of animals." It says in part that, "Manure shall not be allowed to accumulate in any place where it prejudicially affects any source of drinking water."
The State Board of Health, the EPA, the Dept. of Ecology, the Yakima Health District...not one of them is enforcing the current laws. None of our elected officials are listening. Our aquifers are being polluted. Tax subsidized factory farm polluters are ruining this valley.
Where is Governor Gregoire?
Why does she permit her agencies to abandon the public interest in favor of big-money, special-interest agricultural groups?
How big are the campaign contributions she receives from the dairy industry and CAFO operators?
Apparently, big enough to counter the proven public-health risks posed by massive livestock operations.
Write to Gregoire and demand that WAC 246-203-130 be RETAINED and ENFORCED as written.
Send her an online message here:
http://www.governor.wa.gov/contact/
Speaking of campaign contributions, all you have to do is look at the list of political contributions to our recent Yakima County Commissioner race and you'll see that the commissioner who represents the Lower Valley has big contributors in the dairy industry. Yakima County Commissioners have a responsibility in this too. Yet they do nothing to protect our drinking water and air quality. Follow the money and you'll find out why.
Report Violation
I'd like to see the Dept. of Health (as represented by staffer Ned Therien), and Yakima's infamous Health District staffer Gordon Kelly explain why the following statute does not OBLIGATE them to take action against the polluting dairies:
Chapter 90.48 RCW Water pollution control
RCW 90.48.010 Policy enunciated.
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=90.48.010
It is declared to be the public policy of the state of Washington to maintain the highest possible standards to insure the purity of all waters of the state... and to that end REQUIRE THE USE OF ALL KNOWN AND REASONABLE METHODS by industries and others to prevent and control the pollution of the waters of the state of Washington. Consistent with this policy, the state of Washington will exercise its powers, as fully and as effectively as possible, to retain and secure high quality for all waters of the state.
The regulations implementing the Shoreline Management Act (SMA) confirm that, with respect to dairies located in river valleys subject to the SMA (the Yakima River included), the Health Department's WAC 246-203-130 - being the "most protective" regulation concerning "water quality" - "shall apply", i.e. shall take precedence over any less-stringent rules or regulations.
No wonder the dairy industry and their bought-and-paid-for lackeys in state and local government are so anxious to get rid of WAC 246-203-130: it would actually require them to cease contaminating drinking water.
WAC 173-26-221(6) Water quality, storm water, and nonpoint pollution.
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=173-26-221
(a) Applicability. The following section applies to all development and uses in shorelines of the state, as defined in WAC 173-26-020, that affect water quality.
(b) Principles. Shoreline master programs shall, as stated in RCW 90.58.020, protect against adverse impacts to the public health, to the land and its vegetation and wildlife, and to the waters of the state and their aquatic life, through implementation of the following principles:
(ii) Ensure mutual consistency between shoreline management provisions AND OTHER REGULATIONS THAT ADDRESS WATER QUALITY and storm water quantity, including public health, storm water, and water discharge standards. THE REGULATIONS THAT ARE MOST PROTECTIVE OF ECOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS SHALL APPLY.
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