Printer-friendlyEnvironment DEC
From the September 2007 issue
Anniversary of Dairy Farm Spill Marks Advancements in CAFOs
A massive manure spill at a Lewis County dairy farm in 2005 contaminated a 20-mile stretch of the Black River and killed 375,000 fish. Now, two years later, the disaster also has sparked upgrades in oversight, enforcement and planning. On the two-year anniversary of the Marks Dairy Farm spill, monitoring of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) has resulted in the following:
- More inspections - DEC expects to complete 122 farm inspections this fiscal year, which is a 50 percent increase from last year.
- More personnel - The state added five positions for a total of 18 CAFO inspectors.
- More outreach - DEC has instituted CAFO "roadshows" to raise awareness and answer farmers' questions about regulations and requirements, conducting seven such seminars in 2006 and five, so far, in 2007.
- More planning - Updated agricultural-waste-management plans and crop-management plans now are required for all CAFO farms. Farms must have plans, updated annually, that provide for the oversight of the manure lagoons, tanks or other storage structures that many medium- and large-scale operators use to fertilize farm fields.
- More enforcement - DEC has issued 19 enforcement orders for CAFO violations since the 2005 spill.
- More engineering - Every manure storage structure must be certified by a professional engineer. The state planned to have this completed by summer, but a shift in a related federal timeline moved the deadline to February 2009. Still, many NY operations have begun or completed the process already.
2005 Spill and Its Aftermath
The manure spill killed hundreds of thousands of fish in the Black River
The Marks Dairy Farm, located in Lowville, is one of the largest dairy operations in the Northeast, with more than 5,000 cows and thousands of acres of crop fields. On August 10, 2005, several million gallons of manure stored in a lagoon emptied into an adjacent field and moved through a drainage ditch into the Black River. (As measured in phosphorous, the waste output of 5,000 cows roughly equals a municipality of 70,000 people.)
The spill led to a strong drop in oxygen levels in the water, killing more than 375,000 fish in a 20-mile stretch of the river. DEC's investigation found that, fortunately, enough young fish and macroinvertebrates survived the pollution to keep the ecological basis for the river's food chain intact.
In 2006, DEC and Marks Dairy signed a consent order that mandated a $2.2 million settlement package, among other requirements. It included many upgrades; the farm has since put in a fully lined storage structure and implemented improved waste-management practices. The farm is still in the process of completing environmental benefits projects associated with the settlement. These include a conservation easement and construction of two parking areas to provide fishing access to the Black River.
CAFO Program
There are 147 large-scale (more than 700 animals) and 464 medium-scale (200 to 700 animals) CAFO facilities statewide. (Most CAFOs are dairy farms, but chicken, duck, turkey, swine and horse farms also are permitted.) In 1999, New York became one of the first states to adopt a CAFO permit to set guidelines for farms. The permit outlines conditions for waste control and management, including storage limits, erosion controls and lining and design standards. Subsequent federal rules were based largely on New York's comprehensive policies.
As part of the review of the CAFO Program in the wake of the spill, DEC worked with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, the Cornell Cooperative Extension Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service to improve staff training, establish inspection protocols and increase communication among staff and agencies on agricultural issues.
