Oregon’s troubled Lost Valley Farm megadairy will keep its operating permit

Oregon’s troubled Lost Valley Farm won’t lose its operating permit after all.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has signed an agreement that officials say ensures the property will be cleaned up.

Lost Valley, the state’s second-largest dairy, has been cited for more than 200 environmental violations since it opened in Boardman in April 2017.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has been trying to close the dairy since February 2018, when it filed a civil lawsuit against owner Greg te Velde. In June 2018, ODA moved to revoke the dairy’s waste management permit, which details how it must manage and dispose of manure and wastewater.

Te Velde declared bankruptcy in April 2018. In September 2018, the bankruptcy court appointed a trustee to oversee Lost Valley, as well as te Velde’s two California dairies, saying te Velde’s drug use, overspending and pending criminal charges made him unfit to run them.

More:Sale of Lost Valley Farm, troubled Oregon megadairy, allowed to proceed

Now, more than 24 million gallons of manure and wastewater sit in lagoons at the dairy, the state’s second-largest.

Earlier this month, Oregon officials filed an objection to a proposed bankruptcy sale of the dairy, saying the sale agreement didn’t contain adequate cleanup provisions. It states that the bankruptcy trustee, not the buyer, will be responsible for emptying the lagoons and cleaning up the property.

The permit revocation settlement, signed between ODA and the bankruptcy trustee, contains a similar provision: If the buyer doesn’t accept the clean-up provisions of the settlement, that responsibility remains with the trustee.

It also includes a liquidated damages clause assigned to ODA; requires the trustee to hold back $500,000 from the sale of assets; and gives Oregon the right to file an uncapped administrative claim in the bankruptcy proceeding.

The settlement requires all of the cattle to be removed from the dairy by April 15, when the waste management permit will become a “clean-up” permit.

The “clean-up” permit will stay in place until ODA either decommissions the property or issues the new owner a new wastewater permit. If the new owner doesn’t apply for a new permit by Oct. 31, the trustee will begin decommissioning the dairy by Dec. 31.

More:Oregon objects to megadairy sale because it lacks adequate manure cleanup

A coalition of health and environment groups had filed a petition to intervene in the permit revocation, which was scheduled for an administrative hearing next month.

In the petition, they claimed ODA cannot represent the public interest in the case because it has a dual mission of both enforcing and promoting agriculture.

“Despite repeatedly stating its intent to revoke the Lost Valley (wastewater) permit in its entirety, ODA has now apparently done the opposite, and done so in a manner calculated to keep the interested public from a seat at the table,” Amy van Saun, staff attorney for the Center for Food Safety, one of the petitioners, said Tuesday.

“This closed-door agreement shut out the public, and the groups seeking to intervene in the process are disappointed in the state’s lack of transparency,” she said.

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