Click here to get the PDF

Dairy cows produce more than milk. They make manure, too. Each of the 9.1 million dairy cows in the United States excretes approximately 120 pounds, or 14.475 gallons, of manure per day. ^{1, 2} All this manure and other waste that comes from milk production spells environmental trouble for rural communities with heavy concentrations of dairy cows.

Traditional small dairy farms effectively manage manure by applying it to their fields as a crop fertilizer. Unfortunately, U.S. farm policy and economics are causing the demise of those small, diversified farms and the rise of industrial factory dairies that cram together thousands of cows who make millions of gallons of manure. One 2,500-cow dairy produces as much waste as a city with 400,000 residents.³ Factory dairy operators often attempt to deal with the high volume of manure, as well as waste from the milking operation, by using water to flush it out of buildings and into multimillion-gallon lagoons. Then, the mixture is sprayed or spread onto fields to fertilize them. But unlike the relatively small amount of cow manure coming from traditional farms, these loads of industrial dairy waste are too much for the land to absorb and filter. Instead, the manure pollutes the air, water, and soil. It also causes human health problems.

Storing millions of gallons of manure and other waste in one place emits dust particles and hundreds of different volatile gases, including ammonia, carbon dioxide and methane. In fact, two California industrial dairy workers died in 2001 from methane overexposure while they were working in a 30-foot deep manure pit. The dairy foreman and the manager were indicted for involuntary manslaughter over the deaths in February 2003.⁴ In addition to methane, the lagoons give off hydrogen sulfide, which can cause brain damage. It threatens the safety of workers and people living nearby.⁵

Manure from factory dairies also poisons waterways and wells when, for example, a lagoon wall collapses, an operator fails to handle pumps properly, or the waste spills out of lagoons during heavy rains.

Manure contains nitrates and phosphorus. When too many of these nutrients enter waterways, they prompt the rapid growth of algae and other aquatic plants that consume much of the oxygen in the water. This smothers fish and other animals and causes serious taste and odor problems in drinking water.

Each state issues permits that allow factory dairies and other confined animal feeding operations to operate. Regulators issue relatively few fines and rarely shut down the dairies because of spills or other pollution problems. Unless noted, Food & Water Watch believes that the factory dairies highlighted in the following examples are still operating.

California

• California has the most dairy cows of any state in the country, with some 2.5 million in the San Joaquin Valley. In 2005, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution District announced that cows bore more responsibility for air emissions of volatile organic compounds than cars, trucks or pesticides.⁶
• In May 2005, Furtado Dairy in Gilroy dumped 240,000 gallons of wastewater into nearby creeks.⁷
• Following the role of Heritage Farms dairy in a 1.3 million gallon manure spill in 2003⁸ and subsequent citizen uproar, the Solano County Board of Supervisors banned mega dairies within three miles of a city or town. However, they may still operate outside that area.⁹
  

Idaho

• Between May and November 2001, the Idaho Department of Agriculture received 916 citizen complaints about foul odors emanating from mega dairy Desert Rose Farm.¹⁰ In 2003, the Idaho Conservation League threatened to sue the factory dairy over the issue. In 2004, this resulted in Desert Rose becoming the first dairy in the nation to report its toxic air emissions.^{11, 12}
  

Illinois

• In 2001, David Inskeep, then manager of the 1,250-cow Inwood Dairy, pumped one million gallons of manure out of his lagoon and into the West Fork of Kickapoo Creek in Elmwood.¹³ Inskeep was indicted in 2005 by a federal grand jury for criminal violation of the Clean Water Act. A year later he pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 30 days in prison, one year supervised release, and a $3,000 fine.¹⁴
  

Michigan

• In 2006, a town of Bailey dairy operation that annually generates about 138 million gallons of manure had to pay $16,000 in fines and costs after its heavy application of manure to fields polluted a river leading to Mona Lake.¹⁵
• Excessive levels of cryptosporidium (the pathogen responsible for the deaths of 104 people in Milwaukee, Wisc. in 1993) were found in a county drain (part of an agricultural ditch system that drains water off of fields and eventually leads to streams, creeks and rivers) downstream from a factory dairy operation in Lenawee County. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality documented the elevated cryptosporidium levels in an unreleased report. A citizens group obtained the report through the Freedom of Information Act.¹⁶
• In 2006, high levels of E.coli were found in two creeks surrounding a 3,600-dairy cow operation in Van Buren, according to a report by the Department of Environmental Quality.¹⁷
• The Department of Environmental Quality sued Vreba-Hoff Dairy LLC in 2004 after DEQ staff documented 25 separate discharges of waste into area waterways.¹⁸ As part of the settlement, the dairy made several agreements with DEQ. In 2007, the state charged that Vreba-Hoff violated the agreement by illegally spreading manure from its two facilities south of Lansing. The state wants the size of the herd at those locations reduced from 6,050 cows to 3,700.¹⁹
  

Minnesota

• A factory dairy in Olmstead County spilled approximately 125,000 gallons of manure that polluted both ground water and the northern branch of the Root River in 1998. This prompted a local public health warning that residents should temporarily use only bottled water because of the possible contamination of 15 to 20 drinking water wells.²⁰
• One hundred thousand gallons of manure spilled from a dairy storage tank and into Mill Creek in Stearns County in 2004; the owners faced no fines.²¹
• In 2001, one of Metro Dairy’s two 6 million gallon lagoons overflowed and spilled nearly 100,000 gallons of manure into a Wright County ditch that becomes a creek before emptying into wetlands on a state-owned wildlife management area near the Crow River.²²
• On October 5, 2005, Westland Dairy, near Richmond, spilled 25,000 gallons of manure. Meanwhile, Alpha Foods, located near Litchfield, spilled 10,000 gallons.²³

Nevada

• In 1998, a dairy in Amargosa dumped 1.7 million gallons of manure that eventually polluted a California river. Its parent company in California, Rockview Farms Inc., faced a $250,000 fine.²⁴

New Mexico

• In 2003, Sun Valley Dairy, near Berino, submitted a contamination abatement plan to the New Mexico Environment Department after monitoring wells at the dairy showed nitrate levels that ranged almost as high as 10 times the legal limit. The operator has a history of polluting the environment, including a 35,000-gallon waste spill in 1999.²⁵

New York

• In 2005, a factory dairy farm in Martinsburg killed as many as 100,000 fish by spilling three million gallons of manure into the Black River.²⁶
• In February 2001, thousands of gallons of Offhaus Dairy manure were spilled. Forty-nine drinking water wells were contaminated with high levels of E.coli. Residents suffered chronic diarrhea, vomiting and nausea. The state attorney general filed a lawsuit against the farm, which later paid a $36,000 fine. Meanwhile, taxpayers spent $210,000 to add the residential area to the countywide water supply system.²⁷

Oklahoma

• In 2006, Texas-based Alan Ritchey Dairy agreed  to pay $40,000 in civil penalties for polluting the Red River. The dairy has been criticized since 2003 for environmental problems that include allowing manure and wastewater to drain into creeks, and into the Red River.²⁸

Pennsylvania

• In August 2005, a storm in Somerset County sent 27,000 gallons of manure over the tops of a dairy’s lagoons and into nearby Glades Creek and Stoneycreek River. The spill killed most of the aquatic life along seven miles of the creek.²⁹

Texas

• In January 2006, the City of Waco settled a claim against several factory dairies for polluting the Bosque Watershed, a major source of drinking water for the city.³⁰

Wisconsin

• During February and March 2005, the state received 52 reports of manure contamination of lakes, streams and aquifers.³¹
• In 2004, K & D Manure Handling was about to pump liquid manure at Ocooch Dairy when a clamp failed and spilled 4,000 gallons of manure into a fork of the West Baraboo River. Officials suspect that about 500 to 800 gallons reached the river itself.³²
• Maple Leaf Dairy, one of the largest confined animal feeding operations in the state, allegedly violated its waste management permit by improperly handling
  manure. It also failed to minimize adverse environmental impacts when spreading manure over farmland. The operation was responsible for a pair of manure spills into Fischer Creek in September and October 2005, according to the state’s Department of Natural Resources.³³
• A Luxemburg family sickened by polluted well water in the winter of 2004 accepted $380,000 to settle a lawsuit against a 900-cow dairy operation.³⁴
• Forty thousand gallons of manure spilled from Burnside Dairy in 2005. Half of the manure entered Buffalo County streams. The contamination killed fish and harmed organisms that fish eat.³⁵

Conclusion

In light of these and other environmental and human health concerns, the federal and state governments must strictly enforce all environmental laws and shut down any industrial dairy that pollutes the environment. We also urge lawmakers to limit new or expanded confined animal feeding operations.

Click here to view the footnotes for this article.

Learn More