Dairy farms could lose state permits

MUNCIE – Two huge dairy farms could lose their state permits as a result of recent manure spills, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management has said.\nIDEM Commissioner Thomas Easterly warned in a statement Tuesday that Union-Go Dairy in Randolph County and De Groot Dairy in Huntington County faced crackdowns stemming from two spills \nthis month.\n“My staff and I intend to act swiftly to address the serious noncompliance issues at the livestock operations responsible for these emergency spills,” Easterly said. “IDEM will work to the fullest extent of its \nauthority to pursue administrative action and penalties in these cases, and determine whether permit revocations are appropriate.”\nLast week, workers at the 1,650-cow Union-Go Dairy set up a dam so they could pump manure out of Sparrow Creek near Winchester, Ind., after manure fouled about two miles of the stream.\nUnion-Go defended its actions in a statement Wednesday and said it was investigating how manure entered the creek.\n“Not only was the manure in the creek reported immediately to the IDEM spill line, but also the emergency spill response plan was implemented to contain and clean up the contaminants to prevent any damage to the stream,” the statement said.\nOn Monday, manure runoff from the 1,400-cow De Groot Dairy about 30 miles southwest of Fort Wayne entered a small stream that feeds into the Salamonie Reservoir, IDEM said.\nThere was no published listing for De Groot Dairy or owner Johannes De Groot and they could not be reached for comment.\nBoth dairies are concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, operated by Dutch immigrants.