CAFOs Are A Major Source Of Water Pollution In The US
CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations ) create massive amounts of waste that pollutes lakes, rivers, and groundwater in the nation.
In the town of Eileen by Lake Superior, where Reicks View Farms wants to build a massive Hog farm, residents are concerned about what such a facility might do to the water quality.
As reported by the Daily Press: “Lake Superior holds 10% of the world’s fresh surface water and as such, any industry looking to set up in the Lake Superior Basin needs to be held to an extremely high level of scrutiny,’ said FNF co-founder and Bayfield county citizen Mary Dougherty.
‘The Wisconsin DNR, the main regulatory agency for CAFOs, lacks the staff and funding to protect our shared natural resources and as a result, Farms Not Factories was formed to address these threats and protect our great lakes way of life,’ Ms. Dougherty said.
The proposed facility would house 26,000 Hogs, making it the largest hog CAFO in Wisconsin and the 1st hog CAFO in the Lake Superior Basin. It also would produce 9-M gals of manure annually.
‘To put that massive amount of manure into perspective, we are talking about the amount of raw sewage a city the size of La Crosse produces annually,’ she said. That sewage will be injected untreated into clay soil 8ht miles from Lake Superior. ‘The risk of runoff is real and cannot be overstated.”
In a Y 2014 letter to Kewaunee CARES, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future discuss some of the many hazards associated with CAFOs, writing in part: “The Center engages in research, policy analysis, education, advocacy, and other activities guided by an ecologic perspective that diet, food production, the environment, and public health are interwoven elements of a single complex system. We recognize the fundamental importance of food animal production in these issues as they relate to the US food system.
We are writing to present some of the concerns associated with the generation and management of manure from intensive livestock operations, particularly regarding the health of Wisconsin’s rural citizens.
These health and environmental concerns include:
1. The spread of infectious disease, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria, to nearby communities.
2. Groundwater and surface water pollution, and associated health and ecological impacts.
3. Air pollution, odors, and associated health and social impacts.
A growing body of evidence has implicated the generation and management of manure from intensive livestock operations in the spread of infectious disease including antibiotic-resistant strains, introduction of microbial and chemical contaminants into ground and surface waters, impacts to air quality, and the wide range of adverse health, social, ecological, and economic outcomes that result from these events.”
The southwest of Minnesota offers a grim picture of this reality, as there is not 1 lake that meets state water quality standards for fishing and swimming left. Ninety out of 93 streams in this area are also too polluted for such activities.
Bacteria and nitrates are the primary culprits; both of which have agricultural origins.
According to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), addressing the water quality will require limiting runoff and drainage from farms, and reducing pollutants associated with modern farming practices.
Similarly, research published in Y 2013 showed that well water in northeastern Wisconsin contains nitrate, fecal bacteria, and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs).
The fact that CAFOs are not taking their pollution impact on environmental and human health seriously enough is evidenced by the growing number of lawsuits filed against CAFOs over the hazardous pollution they generate and allow to disperse into the environment.
Recently, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation filed a lawsuit against water protection officials in Virginia, demanding CAFO livestock be kept safely out of waterways that drain into the Chesapeake Bay, where a multibillion-dollar water restoration project is underway.
According to a local news source: “The lawsuit argues that the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the State Water Control Board erred in March 2014 when they approved a new 10-yr pollution abatement permit governing large dairy, cattle, pig and poultry farms. The suit states that water protection officials declined to require Virginia’s largest livestock operations to fence off streams to protect them from wandering farm animals.
They instead backed “Buffer Zones” where manure cannot be applied to fields. The foundation maintains that is not enough and livestock should not have unfettered access to rivers and streams. ‘We believe Virginia’s Constitution and state law require the board to protect state waters for all of its citizens,’ Jon Mueller, the Bay Foundation’s vice president of litigation, said…”
Stay tuned…
HeffX-LTN
Paul Ebeling
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