Dairy pollution behind campaign

The Washington Dairy Farmers’ full-page ad informing us that “Cows make more than you think” reminded me of manure in more ways than one. Now, why would dairies go to the expense of advertising how wonderfully they manage their, um, byproduct? Here’s why:

Last January, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rice ruled that the Cow Palace Dairy in Yakima Valley, with 11,000 head of cattle, had annually over-applied 100 million gallons of liquid manure and polluted water to local fields, or let it percolate into groundwater via leaking storage lagoons. These practices contaminated local aquifers with nitrates, rendering water unfit for drinking and posing serious public health issues.

In May, the judge ordered Cow Palace and two other dairies to adopt state-of-the-art manure management practices. These include double-lined lagoons, manure separators, monitoring wells, concrete cow pen aprons, and appropriate silage, compost and field application practices. He also ordered the dairies to provide bottled water or reverse osmosis filters to neighbors impacted by the polluted aquifer.

Regrettably, this type of animal factory pollution is quite common. Consumers of milk, cheese and yogurt should ignore the ads and demand products that are certifiably produced by pollution-free dairies.

Rachael Osborn

Spokane