BOARDMAN, Ore. — The Oregon Department of Agriculture has issued a notice of noncompliance to Easterday Dairy in Boardman for dozens of alleged violations of its water permit.

Easterday Dairy contends that it found none of the allegations took place on its property. There have been no cows on the property for more than four years.

The Department of Agriculture issued the notice on April 13, alleging 36 water violations at Easterday Dairy in 2022 between July 4 and Sept. 20.

Easterday Dairy in a statement from spokesman Ryan Leverenz stated the notice of noncompliance alleges violations on Boardman farmland with a CAFO permit that applies to two separate properties: Easterday Dairy, which owns and operates 736 acres, and Canyon Farm II LLC which owns and operates approximately 6,542 adjacent acres.

Easterday Dairy’s main office is in Boardman, while Canyon Farm II’s office is in San Mateo, Calif. Each company independently manages the crops, fertilizer applications and irrigation on their respective properties.

“There have been no animals on the Easterday Dairy property since March 2019 and no animal waste has been applied to the properties owned by Easterday Dairy or Canyon Farm II since the permit transferred from Greg Te Velde to Easterday Dairy in April 2020,” according to the statement. “Easterday Dairy has determined that none of the alleged violations listed in the April (notice) are for activities or events that occurred on the property it owned and operated.”

Easterday Dairy and Canyon Farms II can contest the department’s findings.

The Department of Agriculture in February 2022 also issued a notice of noncompliance to Easterday Dairy for violations of groundwater nitrate limits that occurred without a single animal on site.

Easterday Dairy “conducted a remedial investigation, and is in full compliance with the actions required on property they own and operate,” according to the statement.

Easterday has a “zero animal” permit while ODA considers its pending application to run a nearly 30,000 head dairy on the site.

The Washington, D.C.-based Food & Water Watch nonprofit on April 28 criticized the agriculture department in a press release, claiming it “failed to assess a dime in penalties or deny the pending mega-dairy permit outright.”

“Like the disastrous Lost Valley Farm before it, Easterday Dairy is a demonstrated threat to public health and the environment — even without a single animal on site,” Food & Water Watch legal director Tarah Heinzen said in a statement. “But once again, ODA has issued a slap on the wrist when it should have denied the mega-dairy permit once and for all.”

Heinzen contended that Oregon needs to “press pause on factory farming.”

Two bills in the state Senate — SB 85 and SB 398 — would require the ODA to study CAFOs and report their findings.

Morrow County, where Easterday seeks permission to milk nearly 30,000 cows, is home to some of the state’s largest farms and remains under a county state of emergency declaration from June 2022 in the wake of the state Department of Environmental Quality fining the Port of Morrow more than $2 million for the over application of nitrates and contaminating residential wells.