Farms can be held liable for pollution from manure: U.S. court

Yahoo News ^ | 1/17/15 | Ayesha Rascoe- Rueters

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. federal court has ruled for the first time that manure from livestock facilities can be regulated as solid waste, a decision hailed by environmentalists as opening the door to potential legal challenges against facilities across the country.

A large dairy in Washington state, Cow Palace Dairy, polluted ground water by over applying manure to soil, ruled Judge Thomas Rice of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington on Wednesday.

"The practices of this mega-dairy are no different than thousands of others across the country," said Jessica Culpepper, an attorney at Public Justice, one of the firms that represented the plaintiffs, a collection of public advocacy groups.

The case is scheduled to go to trial in March to decide the extent of the contamination and the clean-up.

This is the first time the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which governs the disposal of solid and hazardous waste, has been applied to animal waste from a farm.

Industrial livestock operations produce hundreds of millions of tons of manure annually.

The district court ruling, if upheld, could affect any large livestock facility that produces more manure than it can responsibly manage, including poultry, beef and hog farms, Culpepper said.

An attorney for Cow Palace said on Friday that it plans to ask for an appeal.

[hearthwench]

To those who think the scope of the ruling is a good idea-

The problem with this ruling is like all other socialist regulations- it punishes even those who are not causing any problems. Solving an issue does not mean everyone should be punished. It is like killing a fly with a snow shovel.

Remember- Give a mouse a cookie, and it will ask for a glass of milk... Rules and regulations mutate in the same way.

At some point, common sense needs to be reintroduced into society, or we will all be regulated to death.

Yep, my organically-grown veggies, grain and tobacco have soil enhanced by all the poop my chickens produce, copiously. Laughing....

[Fury]

Mistake. There’s plenty of state and local laws without having to have the Feds to invoke RCRA.

Around these parts, some farmers inject liquid manure via a modified chisel plow. Seems to work well. There have been three instances in the past 4-5 years of farmers spreading liquid manure on frozen ground and the manure running off and then fouling wells. No excuse for spreading on frozen ground like that if there are residences nearby.

But the farms did the right thing and in one case paid to have a municipal water line extended and the water bills paid for the homeowners for a period of 5-7 years or thereabouts.