Dairy Farmer Says Faulty Pipe Caused Spill Up To 1.3 Million Gallons Of Waste Water, Manure Flowed Into Yakima River

A dairy owner says a previously undetected old pipe caused the release of cow manure and waste water - enough to fill two swimming pools - into a drain leading to the Yakima River.

An estimated 650,000 to 1.3 million gallons of waste water escaped from a holding pond at the Circle B Dairy outside Zillah last month, according to the state Department of Ecology, which is investigating the incident.

The Circle B incident occurred about a week before a lagoon leak at DeRuyter Brothers Dairy in Outlook that allowed as much as 700,000 gallons of waste and contaminated water to escape. In both spills, waste water leaked into the Granger Drain, which pours into the Yakima River near a public park and boat launch. Measurements at the Granger Drain showed it sometimes carries 20 times the fecal coliform bacteria allowed by the state, authorities said.

Circle B owner Jim Boogerd alerted the Ecology Department of the spill early Feb. 18, the same day he noticed waste leaking from his “catch area,” which consists of a couple dikes set in a low spot.

Boogerd blamed the cause of the leak on an old, underground pipe that he said he hadn’t known existed. Before this spill, the dairy “hadn’t lost a drop of water,” Boogerd said Thursday.

“How can I know when it’s going to happen? If there’s a line laying somewhere under the ground, who knows where, what are we supposed to do?” Boogerd asked. “My dike did not fail.”

But Ray Latham, an Ecology Department inspector in Yakima, said there was an 18-inch hole found in one of the walls enclosing the holding pond.

Boogerd also said the leak occurred on the more elevated end of the dike, so most of the leakage was water because the manure settles to the bottom. He also claimed the spill was much smaller than the state agency’s estimate.

Circle B Dairy faces fines of up to $10,000 for the spill, Latham said.

Dairy farms commonly use large pits, or lagoons, to store millions of gallons of waste water and manure before the mixture is sprayed on fields during the growing season.

Because of statewide concerns about dairy waste management, the Legislature passed a bill this week that would mandate regular inspections of dairies.

Dairy discharges are also behind lawsuits filed against four Yakima Valley dairy owners charging them with violating the federal Clean Water Act. The lawsuits were filed by the Outlook-based environmental groups called the Community Association for Restoration of the Environment.