EPA Stands Behind Conclusion that Industrial Dairies Contaminate Lower Yakima Valley Drinking Water

Yakima, WA.—Despite continued efforts to undermine sound science and community health, Congressman Dan Newhouse (R-WA) again failed to cover up the truth about industrial dairies in the Lower Yakima Valley and the facilities' impacts on groundwater.

In 2017, Congressman Newhouse unsuccessfully pushed legislation aimed at gutting the federal law that protects groundwater from contamination and provides citizens with enforcement power to protect their own communities. In June 2019, at the behest of Washington dairy industry lobbyists, he asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct additional peer review of its 2013 study. That study found that dairies in the Lower Yakima Valley (LYV) contribute significantly to the dangerous levels of nitrates in groundwater and drinking water wells. EPA refused this invitation to revise history, instead stating that the data collected since 2013 confirms the conclusions of the study: the high concentration of dairies, which store waste in leaking lagoons and over-apply manure to crop fields, are the likely source of dangerously high nitrate levels in drinking water wells. 

"Congressman Newhouse again showed that he cares more about industry lobbyists than fairly representing his own constituents and protecting their health," said Jean Mendoza, executive director of Friends of Toppenish Creek. "Because clean drinking water is so very important to all who live in the Lower Yakima Valley and because Yakima County dairies are the largest polluters of groundwater in the Valley, we sent two letters of concern (#1, #2) to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. The EPA responded with complete support for the Yakima study."

In its response to Friends, EPA noted that the 2013 study led to a Consent Order with ongoing research on a cluster of Yakima Valley dairies, stating "The EPA has received a lot of data over the past seven years from the Dairies, and careful consideration of that data has confirmed the study's conclusions . . . data generated under the Consent Order are consistent with the 2013 EPA report."

"Industrial confinement dairies pollute, and poorly managed dairies pollute a lot. While progress is slow, the pollution is real and solutions are available," said Helen Reddout of Community Association for Restoration of the Environment.

"We applaud the EPA for standing strong on the science showing the impacts of dirty dairies on public health. Elected officials like Rep. Newhouse have a duty to serve the public. They must stop trying to protect polluting industries and instead protect the health and welfare of the communities they serve," said Amy van Saun, senior attorney at Center for Food Safety. "Laws like the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act—that Rep. Newhouse attempted to gut in 2017—are there to protect clean water and provide citizens a way to enforce when regulators fail to do so. EPA oversight of industrial animal agriculture is crucial to ensuring that we can have both vibrant agricultural economies and healthy rural communities." 

Background facts:

1. Nitrate levels in groundwater downgradient from the Lower Yakima Valley (LYV) dairy cluster are very high. Over 60% of wells are unsafe for drinking.
2. The highest nitrate level in Idaho's 2014 groundwater surveillance was 110 mg/L. The highest nitrate level in the monitoring wells down-gradient from the LYV dairy cluster was 234 mg/L (Idaho 2014 Nitrate Priority Area Delineation and Ranking Process)
3. Unlined lagoons on the dairy cluster have leaked large amounts of nitrate into the surrounding soils and to the aquifer.
4. Nitrates are leaching from poorly located dairy compost yards. Composting on top of well-drained soils makes no sense.
5. In 2012 the LYV Groundwater Management Area estimated that 12% to 20% of domestic wells had nitrate levels above the EPA drinking water safety standard of 10 mg/L. In 2019, when the LYV GWMA drilled 30 monitoring wells, 45% of those wells had nitrate levels > 10 mg/L.
 

Attachments:

Yakima Herald Republic front page story

Letter from Chris Hladick

FOTC Letters: #1, #2

Dairy Cluster lagoon data

Link to revised 2018 annual report from Cluster

Idaho 2014 Nitrate Priority Area Delineation and Ranking Process