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To the Editor:
Family farmers and rural residents need to know that Rep. Al Juhnke of Willmar is proposing legislation that will weaken environmental standards for the largest farms in our state. As a livestock farmer and registered nurse, that concerns me and I think it is wrong.
The situation at the Excel mega-dairy, which held more than 1,000 dairy cows near Thief River Falls, is one reason I think this is wrong. The manure lagoons at this operation hold 33 million gallons of liquid manure. The operation was shut down in part because it was polluting so badly that neighbors had to evacuate their homes. The problems had gone on for two years and the dairy violated air quality standards hundreds of times.
After the operators would not fix the problem, the permit the state used to finally shut the dairy down was their National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit. This permit is part of the Federal Clean Water Act. Juhnke's legislation proposes that feedlots in Minnesota over 1,000 animal units would no longer be required to get this permit.
Even worse, in arguing for the bill, Juhnke held up the largest livestock operations that are over 1,000 animals units as "very good stewards" and the ones that shouldn't be required to get the NPDES permit. These are the largest 4 percent of feedlots in our state. He then said, "a lot of the smaller feedlots frankly are our biggest problems because of where they are located." No smaller feedlot has been declared a public health threat and forced neighbors to evacuate.
Right now the Excel Dairy manure lagoons still contain liquid manure and taxpayers may have to pick up the clean-up costs because our state doesn't require any bonding for these large farms. Instead of weakening state standards for large farms, we need to strengthen them. As chairman of the House agriculture finance committee, Juhnke should not be pointing his finger at the tens of thousands of smaller livestock farmers in our state in order to pass legislation that favors the largest.
Laura Bihl
Clearwater
