Community Groups Press for New Dairy Regulations
New Mexico Needs Fair Rules and Accountability from the Dairy Industry
Santa Fe, N.M. – At 10:00 am on April 13, a coalition of community, environmental, and consumer groups will hold a press conference at the East entrance to New Mexico’s State Capitol Building to announce their proposal for new dairy permit regulations.
The coalition will call on the Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) to protect New Mexico’s drinking water from continued pollution by the dairy industry. At the press conference, the coalition will deliver 500 comments from concerned New Mexicans to the WQCC and will bring families to tell their personal stories about the hardships they have endured because of water contaminated by dairy wastes.
The WQCC will begin several days of hearings on April 13 to hear testimony from coalition members, the dairy industry, and the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED). The public may also come and give testimony on any day of the hearings.
Unlike the image portrayed by the industry – of small farms with cows peacefully grazing on the grass – the dairy industry in New Mexico is dominated by large-scale industrial dairies, also known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). New Mexico has the highest number of animals per facility of any state in the country.
Each day, New Mexico’s dairies generate 5.6 million gallons of manure. The New Mexico Environment Department data documents that this waste is seeping from manure lagoons into the ground and contaminating groundwater, yet depends on regulations borrowed from other industries for groundwater protection.
“It is absolutely necessary that New Mexico adopt new dairy permit regulations,” said Jerry Nivens of Caballo Concerned Citizens. Nivens started the grassroots group when the ParaSol dairy sought a permit to locate in a flood plain that sweeps down to the Río Grande, threatening irrigated agriculture and local groundwater supplies.
According to the NMED’s own data, two-thirds of the dairies in the State have violated water quality standards for nitrates. “Clearly, the current regulations aren’t doing enough,” said Brian Shields, Executive Director of Amigos Bravos. “We need to be able to hold the dairy industry accountable for the harm it does to the environment and the public health.”
One example of the harm done to residents living near dairies comes from Jana Hughes, founder of Citizens for Dairy reform, based in Hobbs. Hughes’ well water is suspected to be contaminated by nearby dairies. ”By consuming polluted well water, my family and I suffered lethargy, headaches, and dizziness,” said Hughes. ”One day, our son literally turned blue under his eyes, and his lips were blue. We had to rush him to the hospital and we were terrified we would lose him.”
The dairy industry’s main defense isn’t to deny that they pollute, but to say how important they are to the economy of New Mexico. The industry never mentions the cost to the environment and the public health from their operations.
Dairy manure waste is generally stored in large manure impoundments, often called lagoons. The constant seepage from these large manure lagoons, as well as seepage and groundwater contamination from over-application of manure as fertilizer, has clear costs to the public and the State.
“Water treatment costs, health costs, lower property values, impacts on tourism – these are all costs that New Mexicans are paying because of dairy industry pollution,” said Sam Schabacker with Food & Water Watch.”
Dan Lorimier of the Río Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club – covering all of New Mexico and west Texas – worked for years with Caballo Concerned Citizens on the Parasol dairy issue. “The dairy industry can prosper in New Mexico,” he said. “We’re just asking for a set of regulations that are fair to the industry and fair to the public. With the citizen’s proposed regulations, the dairy industry’s accountability, responsibility, and profits can all happen at the same time.”
The demand for new regulations actually came from the dairy industry itself. In the 2009 Legislative session, they pushed through SB206, which specifically required new written permit regulations for the dairy industry. The April hearings are the result of a one-year process of meetings involving the industry, the Environment Department, and community members from across the State.
The industry’s approach to regulatory reform is to exclude all existing dairies in New Mexico from any new regulations and to severely limit the scope of regulations placed on future dairies. It’s a “business as usual” solution.
“The industry was obviously hoping they could control the process, since they started it” said Rachel Conn, Clean Water Policy Analyst for Amigos Bravos. “Fortunately for New Mexico, communities across the State got involved. We have a chance of getting good regulations that will create a level playing field within the industry.”
Added Jerry Nivens, “This whole process has revived my faith in the power of the little guy to get government to pay attention and do right by the people and not just industry.”
The hearing agenda is on the WQCC’s website: http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/wqcc/
COALITION MEMBERS
Amigos Bravos – Michael Jensen (505) 362-1063
Caballo Concerned Citizens – Jerry Nivens (575) 267-2435
Citizens for Dairy Reform – Jana Hughes (575) 492-0172
Food and Water Watch – Sam Schabacker (406) 531-6083
Rio Grande Chapter / Sierra Club – Dan Lorimier (575) 740-2927