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EPA Levies $33,000 Fine Against McMinnville Dairy

Release Date: 8/19/1999
Contact Information: Bub Loiselle and Dave Allnutt
[email protected]
(206) 553-6901 and (206) 553-2581

August 19, 1999 - - - - - - - - - - 99-33
The regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency today announced a fine against a dairy farm in McMinnville, $33,000 for disposing of manure-laden waste into a ground source of drinking water and for polluting Hawn Creek and the Yamhill River with run-off from the dairy and cattle operation. The farm, Birch Circle Farms, is owned by George Warmington.

The improper waste disposal and pollution are violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act. Each of the three counts in the EPA complaint carries an $11,000 fine.

Additionally, EPA is requiring the owner of the farm, to stop discharging wastewater underground or to any surface waters.

In December 1998, EPA inspectors noted manure-laden wastewater from the dairy running into Hawn Creek, a tributary of the Willamette River. An inspection last February uncovered similar run-off into the Yamhill River and also unearthed the illegal discharge into groundwater.

Bub Loiselle, head of EPA’s dairy inspection program being conducted with the Oregon Department of Agriculture said, “The mess we found at Birch Circle farms is exactly what these inspections are all about. Dairy waste is a very serious threat to human health and that of streams and rivers.”

“By cracking down on operations like this dairy,” Loiselle added, “the state and EPA remind polluters that there are serious consequences to ignoring laws intended to protect human health and the environment.”

As noted in the complaint (attached), dairy waste can contain a host of harmful bacteria and viruses including E.Coli and salmonella. It can also carry the potentially lethal cryptosporidium parasite. Nitrogen compounds present in manure are typically converted to nitrates which, when ingested by the very young, can cause a severe anemic condition called methemoglobinemia. The condition can be fatal if left untreated.

Dairy waste is also high in nutrients that adversely affect rivers’ abilities to maintain levels of dissolved oxygen required by cold-water fish such as trout and salmon.

EPA’s dairy inspections are part of a cooperative effort with the Oregon Department of Agriculture to bring the
state’s controlled animal feeding operations (CAFOs) into compliance with state and federal safe drinking water and clean water standards.