St. Paul, MN — Today, Food & Water Watch and the Land Stewardship Project sued the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) over the state’s June 23 decision to forgo an Environmental Impact Statement for Riverview’s proposed West River Dairy expansion near Morris, Minn.

If built, the 18,000 cow facility would be the largest factory farm in the state — more than 60 times the size of the average Minnesota dairy — producing over 200 million gallons of waste annually. The facility is already located next to two impaired waterways, the Pomme de Terre River and an unnamed creek. The expansion would also generate a minimum of 66,000 tons of additional greenhouse gas emissions each year, although this number severely underestimates the full scope of the project’s climate impacts. 

Today’s lawsuit alleges that the failure to require an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) considering these and other impacts before approving the factory farm expansion was in violation of state and federal law. The petition requests judicial review of the MPCA’s decision, arguing the agency failed to consider evidence of likely impacts to the climate, water resources, and the social and economic wellbeing of surrounding communities. Food & Water Watch and FarmSTAND are representing the Land Stewardship Project in this action, and Food & Water Watch is also representing itself.

Riverview is the nation’s second largest dairy producer, and the largest in Minnesota. The West River Dairy expansion is among a slate of widely opposed Riverview mega-dairy proposals in the region. The move would escalate dairy industry consolidation in Minnesota and nationally, flooding the market with cheap factory farmed milk and making it even harder for moderate sized, family dairies to survive.

The Land Stewardship Project’s Animal Agriculture Policy Organizer Matthew Sheets said: “The MPCA’s decision not to issue an EIS on this, the largest ever proposed livestock operation in our state, left so many questions unanswered. As an organizer within my community and as a resident of Morris, our concerns and questions deserve answers. We deserve to know our community will be safe from any impacts this project will have — especially given the track record we have seen with Riverview in other parts of the state and country.”

Food & Water Watch Legal Director Tarah Heinzen said:

“It is hard to overstate the environmental destruction threatened by Riverview’s proposed West River factory farm expansion. The company’s attempt to deepen its stranglehold on Minnesota’s dairy industry will come at enormous cost to our air, water, and climate. Minnesota’s reckless refusal to conduct a detailed Environmental Impact Study before approving the facility’s expansion will not stand in court.”

FarmSTAND Senior Attorney Holly Bainbridge said: “Riverview’s proposed mega-dairy expansion is a prime example of why robust environmental review is required to protect people and the environment. If the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency won’t do its job on behalf of Minnesotans, we’ll force them to in court. In every state it expands to, the mega-dairy model is an environmental disaster for surrounding communities. It also fuels dairy industry consolidation that has devastating impacts on small-scale dairy farmers and rural economies.”

The filing comes amidst growing calls for action on a worsening nationwide drinking water contamination crisis, tied to factory farm waste. West River Dairy is designed to discharge pollution, authorized to use waste disposal practices that are known to cause runoff and leaching of nitrates and other dangerous pollutants into drinking water and the environment. Roughly 1 in 5 Americans’ drinking water contains elevated levels of nitrates, linked to cancers, among other human health problems.

Riverview owns 16 mega-dairies in Minnesota alone, housing more than 135,000 cows — nearly a third of the state’s entire dairy herd. Meanwhile, the average Minnesota dairy raises fewer than 280 cows. In addition to the West River expansion, Riverview has proposed a 25,000 cow mega-dairy in Herberg, North Dakota; a 12,500 cow mega-dairy in Abercrombie, North Dakota; and a 25,000 cow mega-dairy in Edmunds County, South Dakota. The company also has a major presence in New Mexico and Arizona. Food & Water Watch is also representing Dakota Resource Council in a lawsuit challenging North Dakota’s permit for Riverview’s Herberg mega-dairy.