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Court victory-clean water-feedlots.

manure cattle waste runoff

 
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#1 Shortpoet-GTD

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Posted 10 February 2012 - 03:33 AM

"In a precedent-setting decision last month that received scant national coverage,
a federal district court judge in Washington State ordered a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation), also known as a factory farm, to monitor groundwater, drainage and soil
for illegal pollution resulting from its grossly inadequate manure management practices in
violation of the Clean Water Act.
This first-ever ruling holding a CAFO accountable for its pollution was a result of a lawsuit by the nonprofit Community Association for Restoration of the Environment (CARE) against the
Nelson Faria Dairy in Royal, Washington.
The ruling upholds the terms of a 2006 settlement CARE had with the dairy’s previous owners,
which the current owners subsequently ignored.

The case underscores one of the major problems with CAFOs, which is the massive amount of manure they produce and the manners by which operators dispose of it, which have major environmental implications.
According to the EPA, “a single dairy cow produces approximately 120 pounds of wet manure per day,” which is “equivalent to that of 20-40 people.”
The quantity of manure produced by one dairy cow can be multiplied on a CAFO by hundreds
or, in some cases, thousands of heads.
This higher concentration of CAFO animals leads to a higher concentration of animal waste, a problem that holds true for all types of livestock raised in these operations.

When too much manure is spread out over fields for soil to properly absorb it, or when manure lagoons leak, overflow or rupture, rain and stormwater runoff can carry the waste into groundwater and nearby waterways.

The hope is that this court victory against CAFO manure handling and pollution – little mentioned in the media – will help set a precedent toward better practices, regulation and enforcement of the CAFO industry."

http://civileats.com...ater-pollution/

It's about time.

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