The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice are seeking a preliminary injunction in their lawsuit against three large dairies in Lower Yakima Valley to force the dairies to test nearby wells and supply alternative drinking water to homes where well waters exceed the federal standard for nitrate.

They are also asking the court to require one of the dairies to immediately address potential leakage from a manure storage lagoon due to a compromised liner.

The motion for preliminary injunction was filed in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington on July 2. The lawsuit was filed in that court on June 26.

The agencies allege poor manure management practices at Cow Palace, DeRuyter and Bosma dairies near Granger, Wash., are contaminating area residents’ drinking water.

Noncompliance

EPA alleges the dairies, which collectively have more than 30,000 animals, have failed to comply with a legal agreement with the agency they entered into in 2013 to reduce nitrate leaching from their facilities.

That agreement directed the dairies to:

• Offer alternative water to homes on the dairies’ properties and within 1 mile downgradient where residential wells exceed 10 milligrams per liter for nitrate.

• Take specific action to control potential sources of nitrogen, including storage lagoons and application fields.

• Establish a network of groundwater monitoring wells and conduct quarterly monitoring.

• Improve nutrient management, such as limiting the amount of manure applied to fields.

Missed deadlines

“The dairies repeatedly missed deadlines to complete these actions under the consent order and have yet to complete all required source control actions,” according to court documents.

In May 2015, the court issued consent decrees in lawsuits brought by citizen groups against each of the dairies under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act requiring the dairies to install 14 additional monitoring wells and perform quarterly monitoring, among other actions.

Despite the 2013 agreement and the consent decrees, the dairies continue to contaminate the drinking water of residents who live downgradient of the dairies and source their water from private wells, according to the motion for preliminary injunction.

Current monitoring well data show several “hot spots” at the defendants’ properties where nitrate levels in groundwater remain above 50 milligrams per liter. The affected area extends about 3.5 miles downgradient of the defendants’ properties.

Groundwater monitoring

The groundwater monitoring provision of the 2013 consent order expired in July 2021. While the dairies have conducted some voluntary monitoring since then, they have refused to comply with the consent order’s quality assurance project plan, the agencies allege.

In addition, the affected area extends past the negotiated 1-mile radius in the consent order, and homes outside that area are excluded from the dairies’ provisions of offering alternative water, they said.

“Because past efforts have not protected residents at risk of drinking water exceeding the nitrate MCL (maximum contaminant level), renewed testing and alternative water is necessary to immediately abate the public health threat,” the agencies stated.