FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 24, 2017
Elma, Wash. – The Washington State Dairy Federation and the Washington Farm Bureau filed a joint appeal last week that challenges the recent Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation permits issued by the Department of Ecology.
“The requirements of the permit will make it harder to manage dairy nutrients,” said Dairy Federation Executive Director Dan Wood. “The intent of the permits is to set guidelines for environmental protection, but the requirements of the permit will make it harder to do that.”
Dairy farms are already regulated under the state Dairy Nutrient Management Act, and each dairy has one or more lagoons for holding nutrients (dairy manure) until the appropriate time to spread the nutrients as fertilizer.”
The federal Natural Resource Conservation Service provides standards for dairy lagoon construction and maintenance. Most dairy lagoons are lined with clay, and some are lined with synthetic material.
“Dairy nutrients are a highly-valued natural fertilizer used to grow crops on dairies as well as on adjoining farms,” said Washington Farm Bureau Chief Executive Officer John Stuhlmiller. “Dairy is the state’s second-largest agricultural commodity and is extremely important to our state economy. It’s important to note that the nutrients from dairy operations are important to a lot of other farmers across the state, especially those growing organic crops. It’s a dependable supply of natural, healthy fertilizer.”
The appeal states the permits “impose management constraints that are contrary to the water quality protections the CAFO Permits seek to obtain, impose restrictions on the operations of dairy farms that would decrease rather than increase water quality protection, will cause WSDF members to suffer economic loss with no or no meaningful corresponding protection of water quality, and include terms that are unachievable because the CAFO Permits are divorced from the reality of Washington’s annual crop harvest, rainfall, and manure applications.”
“The permit failed to take into account some key farm management practices,” noted Stuhlmiller. “It requires fall soil sampling after crop harvest but no later than October 1. A lot of farms haven’t even started their crop harvest by then, making it virtually impossible to comply with the demands of the permit.”
Stuhlmiller also noted that the testing requirements and nutrient application limitations are particularly counter-productive for Eastern Washington, where many fields see two harvests in the course of a year.
“There are a number of management restrictions that will result in less-productive crops, less uptake of the nutrients by the plants, and a need for bigger lagoons,” said Wood. “The regulations in the permits will work against good management practices.”
The appeal also notes that the Economic Impact Analysis “underestimates the actual impacts on small businesses posed by costs of complying with the CAFO Permits. First, the EIA underestimated the costs of soil sampling and the impact on permittees from the delay for planting winter crops. The EIA also fails to recognize any economic impacts from the loss of land caused, for example, by the 100- or 35- foot land buffers” required by one of the permits.
The appeal requests that certain aspects of the permits be reviewed and revised to be consistent with state and federal laws and agency-prescribed practices that already regulate the use of livestock nutrients.
The Washington State Dairy Federation is an advocacy organization representing dairy producers on local, state and federal legislative and regulatory issues. For more information about the Washington State Dairy Federation, go to www.wastatedairy.com. To speak with the Washington State Dairy Federation on this topic, please contact Dan Wood at dan@wastatedairy.com or (360) 870-6018.
Washington Farm Bureau is a 42,000-member advocacy organization representing family farmers and ranchers across the state. For more information about Washington Farm Bureau, go to www.wsfb.com. To speak with Washington Farm Bureau on this topic, please contact John Stuhlmiller at jstuhlmiller@wsfb.com or (360) 357-9975.
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