Oregon cites multiple dairies for manure discharge violations

The Oregon Department of Agriculture issued four dozen fines, citations and warnings to dairies and other confined animal feeding operations last year, many for unauthorized manure discharges.

ODA regulates manure handling at the state’s 500-plus confined animal feeding operations, including dairies and feedlots.

It issues permits, under the federal Clean Water Act, that are supposed to prevent manure and wastewater from contaminating ground and surface water, which can impact recreation and harm fish and marine organisms.

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Agency staff members performed 741 inspections at those facilities in 2018, down from 880 in 2017 and 763 in 2016, a review by the Statesman Journal found.

Citations include many at Lost Valley Farm dairy

Many of those were at Boardman’s Lost Valley Farm, which made headlines all year for permit violations. It was shut down in February 2019 as part of a bankruptcy sale, but not before being fined $197,960 for more than 200 environmental violations.

Oregon spent at least $350,000 trying to enforce permit requirements at the Lost Valley Farm, ODA spokeswoman Andrea Cantu-Schomus said.

Lost Valley was one of two dairies ODA fined for water quality violations during 2018.

The other, Sunset Canyon Jerseys in Tillamook County, was fined $9,500 for repeatedly releasing manure to a ditch entering the Nestucca River, which eventually flows to Nestucca Bay on the coast near Pacific City.

The dairy, owned by Eric Silva and Paula Wolf, is at 26755 Blaine Road in Beaver, near the Nestucca. ODA inspectors had responded to a complaint of foamy water in the river, and found high levels of E. coli in the ditch leading from the farm.

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Sunset Canyon Jerseys was fined $36,280 in 2017, and $2,376 in 2011, for the same violations. ODA also cited, but didn’t fine, the dairy for manure discharge violations in 2012, 2010 and 2007. It cited the dairy for recordkeeping violations in 2015.

A list of dairies with manure release citations

In addition to the three civil penalties, the state issued 22 notices of noncompliance/plans of correction, or citations without fines, in 2018.

That’s down from 50 last year and 27 in 2016.

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Seven of those went to Lost Valley Farm. Of the remaining citations, 11 involved manure releases:

• Hogan Dairy Farms, in Tillamook, was cited after its manure digester malfunctioned, causing 30,000 to 40,000 gallons of waste to overflow from an effluent control pond into a ditch that flows to Holquartin Slough, entering waters of the state.
• Diamond Valley Dairy, in Salem, was cited after DEQ confirmed two complaints about liquid manure and wastewater seeping into a neighbor’s pond.
• Stumbling J Livestock, in Shedd, was cited for allowing manure solids and contaminated runoff to escape a storage area.
• Lords Bounty Farm, in Scio, was cited for violating setbacks for land application of manure, for land applied manure discharging to surface water, and for manure leaking from a broken transfer hose to surface water.
• Country Lane Dairy, in Carlton, was cited for spraying liquid manure onto railroad tracks off its property.
• Drew Campbell, in Cottage Grove, was cited after a reception pit overflowed into a storm drain, discharging waste to surface water.
• Tillamook Farm Power, in Tillamook, was cited after a pump failed at its digester, sending effluent through multiple fields and ultimately into Holquartin Slough. It received a second citation after it discharged liquid manure into a ditch on McCormick Loop Road.
• Palace Dairy Farm, in Grants Pass, was cited for allowing manure to discharge from a leaking pump.
• Bailey Farms, in Cloverdale, was cited for allowing an above-ground liquid manure tank to overflow, causing a substantial discharge onto a field.
• Nussbaumer Dairy, in Hillsboro, was cited for allowing a manure pit to overflow and discharge into a nearby pasture, ultimately ending up in Phillips Road ditch.

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Other farms were cited for improper monitoring or record keeping, allowing animals direct access to streams, or keeping more animals than permitted.

ODA also issued 23 water quality advisories, or warning letters.

Fines collected for civil penalties in the program can only be used for educational projects and projects that benefit operators of confined animal feeding operations.

Last year, $1,760 went to the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association to print record-keeping calendars; and $20,475 went to a Salem engineering company to develop an internet-based manure application planning tool available to CAFO operators. 

Contact the reporter at tloew@statesmanjournal.com, 503-399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/Tracy_Loew