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Smith Brothers Issued Complaint: EPA Proposes $11,000 Penalty For Waste Flows At Kent Dairy

Release Date: 9/29/1999
Contact Information: Bub Loiselle and Robert Jacobson
loiselle.bub@epamail.epa.gov
(206) 553-6901 and (206) 553-1203

September 29 , 1999 - - - - - - - - - - 99-46


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

An $11,000 civil penalty is being sought from Smith Brothers Dairy in Kent because U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inspectors observed manure-laden dairy wastes enter a nearby drainage ditch and into the Green River, home to endangered Puget Sound chinook salmon.

The penalty was proposed in an EPA administrative complaint announced today by Bub Loiselle, head of EPA’s dairy inspection program in Seattle.

“Dairy waste is a very serious threat to human health and water quality,” declared Loiselle. “By cracking down on waste discharges, we are reminding other dairies that there are serious consequences to ignoring laws intended to protect human health and the environment.”

The inspection of the Smith Brothers Dairy last spring was part of ongoing efforts by EPA and the Washington Department of Ecology to ensure that Washington dairies and other concentrated animal feeding operations are in compliance with the federal Clean Water Act. That law requires all CAFOs to prevent discharges of wastes that can pollute nearby surface waters and enter drinking water supplies.

Dairy waste typically contains large amounts of nutrients and other organic material that can degrade water quality and harm wildlife. The wastes can also contain
E. coli and salmonella bacteria, plus other health-threatening microorganism -- for example, the cryptosporidium parasite that can seriously affect human health and can cause death.