News from New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

For more information contact: Yancey Roy, 518-402-8000

DEC Reports: Progress since Marks Dairy Spill

ALBANY, NY (08/09/2007; 1138)(readMedia)-- 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.

But, two years later, the disaster also has sparked upgrades in oversight, enforcement and planning, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis said today.

On the two-year anniversary of the Marks Dairy Farm spill, Grannis noted the advancements in the monitoring of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) made as a result:

• More inspections. DEC expects to complete 122 farm inspections this fiscal year – a 50 percent jump over last year.
• More personnel. The state added five positions, giving the CAFO program 18 inspectors.
• More outreach. The agency has instituted CAFO ``roadshows’’ to raise awareness and answer farmers’ questions about regulations and requirements. DEC conducted 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 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 N.Y. operations have already started or completed the process.

``The Marks Dairy Farm spill was an unprecedented disaster. But the silver lining is that it improved monitoring and raised awareness about a water-quality issue that is overlooked too often,’’ Grannis said. ``No amount of regulation can guarantee we’ll never have another spill. But we have put in place programs that reduce the odds.’’

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 Aug. 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 over 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 in tact.

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.

There are 147 large-scale (more than 700 animals) and 464 medium-scale (200 to 700 animals) CAFO facilities statewide. (CAFOs predominately are dairy farms, but chicken, duck, turkey, swine and horse farms are also permitted.) New York in 1999 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 largely were based on New York’s comprehensive policies.

As part a review of the CAFO program in the wake of the spill, DEC worked with the 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.

For more information and a map of CAFO sites across New York, go to: www.dec.ny.gov/permits/6285.html