Report says proposed dairy operation will impact groundwater near Abercrombie

ABERCROMBIE, N.D. — A private study says the

proposed dairy cattle operation near Abercrombie

poses serious risks to the area’s ground and surface water.

David Erickson, a principal hydrologist with Water and Environmental Technologies, a consulting firm with offices in Montana and Wyoming, recently finished a study of the proposal and its potential impacts on groundwater near a proposed 12,500-head dairy operation by Riverview Farms, a Morris, Minnesota-based dairy corporation.

The Dakota Resource Council and residents of Abercrombie are asking the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality to consider the study report and include it as part of the permit application submitted by Riverview Farms.

Riverview Farms hopes to build a $90 million facility just south of Abercrombie in Richland County.

It is also proposing a $180 million, 25,000-head operation southeast of Hillsboro

in Traill County. The two proposals would quadruple the number of dairy cattle in North Dakota, which the North Dakota Department of Agriculture estimates at just 10,000 cows across 24 dairy operations.

The facility would be 1.4 miles from the Wild Rice River and 1.8 miles from the Red River, on top of the Wahpeton Buried Valley Aquifer, which supplies drinking water to 28 domestic wells within a two-mile radius, as well as the communities of Abercrombie, Wahpeton and Breckenridge, Minnesota.

“By granting this permit, North Dakota is permitting and encouraging the polluting of thousands of acres around the proposed Abercrombie Dairy,” Erickson said in the report.

Riverview officials could not be reached for comment on the report.

Erickson studied Riverview’s permit application and identified contaminants commonly found in dairy lagoons, such as nitrates, hormones, antibiotics and pesticides that also have been found in drinking water wells near other cattle facilities in Washington, Wisconsin and California.

“The current permit application for the Abercrombie Dairy fails to protect North Dakota’s surface water due to insufficient requirements for manure application locations, timing and methods,” said Erickson in the report. “This facility directly threatens the Red River, the Wild Rice River and Antelope Creek.”

Erickson said that a proposed 24-foot-deep, clay-lined lagoon that can hold 106.7 million gallons of manure each year is compliant with North Dakota livestock regulations, however, the regulations do not require monitoring wells to detect potential leakage. Erickson said he has studied lagoon seepage since 1988 and based on his experience and other research, he expects the two lagoons will leak much more than the less than half-inch of wastewater leakage projected by Riverview’s permit.

“Given that the water table sits just two feet below the lagoon bottom, the 22 inches of annual seepage will contaminate the water table in just over a year,” Erickson said in his report.

Erickson counted fields that would receive some of the manure as fertilizer and 42 of the fields have direct connections to tributaries, 10 border Antelope Creek, 15 border the Wild Rice River and three are adjacent to the Red River.

“Acute and immediate impacts to water quality will result from application of manure in the volume and locations described in the permit,” Erickson said.

He also noted that residents will likely have to contend with other side effects of applying the manure produced by the dairy operation to nearby fields.

“The odor from the application process is overwhelming and rancid for days after the application regardless of the application method,” Erickson said. “Nearby residents will have to contend with rancid odors, spills and releases on the roadways from hauling, additional manure truck traffic and routine misapplication by farm personnel.”

Riverview staff have said the facilities will create jobs, expecting to employ 45 people, many of whom would be internal hires. The company expects the farm would increase job opportunities for other vocations, such as truck drivers and manure applicators.

Residents, who have called themselves Abercrombie Citizens for Responsible Growth, along with the Dakota Resource Council,

have been meeting regularly since this fall

to discuss and voice concerns about what the operation would do the water supple and quality of live in and around the town of about 261 people. They have requested the state Department of Environmental Quality address the concerns and they have formally requested a public meeting to review the findings.

Abercrombie Citizens for Responsible Growth said the community plans to meet once again at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 10, at the community center.