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EPA JOINS DAIRY PARTNERSHIP, AWARDS $443,740 CLEAN WATER GRANT

Release Date: 9/9/1999
Contact Information: Dave Schmidt, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1578

     MONEY WILL FUND STATE/U.C. ANTI-POLLUTION TRAINING PROGRAM
     
     (San Francisco)   Speaking at the University of California's Dairy Research and Teaching Facility in Davis, EPA Regional Administrator Felicia Marcus announced that EPA is joining a government-dairy industry partnership, and awarding a $443,740 grant to the State Water Resources Control Board to fund a U.C. Davis program that trains dairy operators on how to comply with clean water laws and avoid polluting waterways with cow manure.

     "Preventing water pollution from animal waste is a high priority for EPA, and in California that means cows," said Felicia Marcus, Regional Administrator for EPA's western region.  "The public health impacts, particularly to children who drink tainted water, are so significant we need to use every tool at our disposal. Through this grant and this partnership, we'll be working with dairies who want to cooperate, while continuing to enforce against those who don't."  

     "Today's signing and grant by U.S. EPA ensures the continued success of a very worthwhile and positive program," said Secretary William (Bill) J. Lyons Jr. of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.  "Helping to educate our dairy farmers on how best to comply with the often complex and wide-ranging rules and regulations on water quality issues will help us achieve the ultimate goal of protecting our environment."    

     "The goal of the Environmental Stewardship Partnership Agreement is 100% compliance with county, state, and federal water and air quality regulations," said U.C. Davis livestock waste management specialist Deanne Meyer.  "Dairy producers who have attended our short course have appreciated the opportunity to get a copy of the state regulations and get answers to questions they have on regulatory requirements.  Producers are best situated to understand and manage their resources when they have a better understanding of their regulatory obligations."

     Water pollution from dairy waste -- cow manure -- is a serious problem in California.  The  state's roughly 2400 dairies average 550 cows each, and a single cow produces 22 tons of waste per year. That adds up to nearly 30 million tons of dairy waste per year.  This waste can be safely applied to croplands as fertilizer, but dairies must manage the waste carefully to keep it from fouling the state's waterways.  Nutrient-rich pollution from dairy waste not only makes water undrinkable, it also uses up the water's dissolved oxygen, in some cases killing fish and other aquatic species -- or preventing them from living at all in chronically oxygen-starved waterways.

     The Partnership Agreement signed today makes EPA part of the California Dairy Quality Assurance Program, a joint effort of state and federal agencies, the dairy industry, and the University of California to address environmental concerns, food safety, and animal health issues.  The program's first component, unveiled by the dairy industry and the California  Department of Food and Agriculture last October, is an Environmental Stewardship Plan designed to help dairy producers comply with federal, state, and local requirements on water quality and manure and nutrient management.

     EPA's $443,740 grant to the state Water Resources Control Board will be used to fund a short course on dairy waste management developed by Deanne Meyer of the U.C. Davis Cooperative Extension Service.  The course consists of three two-hour sessions in which dairy operators learn
ways to comply with environmental regulations, including requirements that:

          Animals are not allowed to enter surface waters such as streams and ditches in confined areas of dairies.
          Wastewater and contaminated rainfall, even during rainstorms, must be contained.
          Waste storage ponds must be protected from inundation or washout.
          Waste ponds must be constructed so that potential contamination of groundwater is minimized.
          Manure or wastewater must be applied to croplands in ways that prevent surface runoff and minimize percolation to groundwater.

     Dairy operators who complete the course qualify for additional compliance assistance, such as voluntary dairy evaluations by third parties, which are designed to prepare the operators for inspections by regulatory agencies.  Dairy inspections by EPA and the state's Regional Water Quality Control Boards will continue, and violators will be subject to the same penalties as before.

     In addition to EPA, the Dairy Partnership includes the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Cal/EPA, California Resources Agency, State Water Resources Control Board, State Department of Fish and Game, University of California, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the industry groups California Manufacturing Milk Advisory Board, Western United Dairymen, Milk Producers Council, and California Farm Bureau Federation.

     California is the nation's number one dairy state, producing about 26 billion pounds of milk and cheese annually, valued at more than $3.6 billion.  Additional information on the Partnership Agreement and related issues can be found on the EPA Region 9 Web site at: www.epa.gov/region09/animalwaste