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Sixth Washington Dairy Issued Complaint
Release Date: 5/20/1998
Contact Information: Bob Jacobson
[email protected]
(206) 553-1203
May 20, 1998 - - - -- - - - - 98-27
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hansen Farms, a dairy in the Skagit County community of Bow, has been issued a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency complaint alleging it allowed runoff of liquids contaminated with manure to drain into ditches that flow toward Samish Bay.
The runoff, observed at the Hansen dairy by EPA inspectors last December 19, is considered an illegal discharge under the federal Clean Water Act, according to the complaint. The complaint was announced today by LeRoy Loiselle, chief of the water compliance unit at EPA's regional headquarters in Seattle.
The complaint proposed a civil penalty of $11,000.
Hansen Farms has 30 days from the date the complaint is received to challenge the penalty or to contest EPA's allegations.
The complaint was accompanied by a compliance order that requires Hansen Farms to stop all discharges of wastes from storage ponds, silage piles or any animal confinement area, plus all discharges resulting from land application of animal wastes. Hansen Farms is required to check daily for any discharge; if one is observed, samples must be taken and analyzed by a laboratory for fecal coliform bacteria. Also, EPA must be notified and steps taken by the dairy to prevent such discharges from recurring.
Hansen Farms was the sixth dairy to receive a complaint and compliance order as a result of inspections EPA has conducted at dairies in western Washington since last December. Inspection reports are still being reviewed at EPA's offices in Seattle. More complaints and compliance orders are expected to be issued over the next few weeks.
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