Stopping Polluting Dairies in Washington
Center for Food Safety and community groups used federal hazardous waste law to challenge mega-dairy pollution in the Yakima Valley, where mismanaged manure contaminated drinking water and threatened public health.
Defending the Yakima Valley
In the Yakima Valley, large dairy operations generate massive amounts of manure that polluted groundwater and drinking water wells with nitrates and other contaminants, threatening nearby communities.
In 2019, Center for Food Safety challenged industrial dairy pollution from two major Yakima Valley factory farm dairies under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), a federal law governing the handling and disposal of solid and hazardous waste.
Litigating Against Polluting Dairies
Center for Food Safety, alongside community groups in Washington’s Yakima Valley, brought legal actions against industrial dairies for mismanaging manure and contaminating local drinking water supplies with animal waste, antibiotics, and other pollutants.
The litigation relied on the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to argue that improperly stored and over-applied manure from large dairy operations can create an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health and the environment.
A landmark ruling and later settlement required major operational changes at several dairies, including safer manure lagoon practices, limits on manure application, groundwater monitoring, and clean drinking water for impacted residents.
CFS and community partners have continued to push for enforcement against mega-dairy pollution and stronger protections for Yakima Valley residents whose wells have been contaminated by nitrates and other pollutants.
Mega-Dairy Pollution and Our Work
Mega-dairies generate enormous amounts of manure that can leach nitrates and other contaminants into groundwater and nearby drinking water wells.
Nitrate contamination can pose serious health risks, especially for infants and pregnant people, and has been linked to conditions including blue baby syndrome, several forms of cancer, autoimmune system dysfunction, reproductive problems, and other chronic health concerns.
The Yakima Valley is home to a large population of migrant farmworkers, many of whom are undocumented, who bear the burden of these public health impacts from factory farm pollution.
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is a federal law that gives the EPA authority to regulate and control hazardous waste from “cradle to grave,” meaning the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of the hazardous waste.
Our landmark precedent in this case helped establish that mismanaged manure from industrial livestock operations can be regulated as solid waste under RCRA when it threatens public health and the environment.
Center for Food Safety worked with Yakima Valley community groups to hold industrial dairies accountable for manure mismanagement and drinking water contamination under federal law.
