Holidays, 2005 - Winter Waste Application

Why is this practice - CAFO dumping - still legal in Michigan?

It's started again, a foul winter ritual - the spraying of liquid manure from CAFOs on snow and frozen ground. This practice is "not recommended" in Michigan's Generally Accepted Agricultural Management Practices (GAAMPs). But there's no penalty for doing it. Why not? With the first rain or first thaw, the waste flows off fields into streams.

Manure can't fertilize crops when there is no crop; it can't reach soils when the ground is covered with snow.  Spraying on snow and frozen ground serves one purpose only -- waste disposal. Dumping. It's free to CAFOs. It's costly and hazardous to the rest of us.

High bacteria counts downstream from manure-fields
Through November this year, CAFOs sprayed liquid waste on fields (see list of applications, stench alerts). On Thanksgiving, we had snowfall, then a few days later, 1.55 inches of rain.  Water samples downstream from manure-fields tested extremely high for E. coli bacteria, some sites more than 50 times the allowable level of 1,000/100 ml:

Tributary to Fisher Lake, 11-29-05, downstream from Vreba-Hoff - E. coli 22,000/100 ml
Wallace Drain to Hazen Creek, 11-29-05, downstream from New Flevo - E. coli 48,000/100 ml
Durfee Creek, 11-21-05, downstream from Vreba-Hoff - E. coli Too Numerous To Count 

 
Durfee Creek, November 2005. This stream is already on Michigan's list of "impaired" waters, after multiple manure discharges from Vreba-Hoff CAFO.

Wolf Creek, February 2004 - year after year, practices haven't changed. CAFO waste still contaminates our streams.