A local dairy proposed building the largest herd of cows in the entire state of Minnesota right here in my county — a massive enterprise that would suck our aquifer dry and turn the water into giant stinking fecal pools that will breed more flies. Much of the local population is opposed, and Riverview Dairy has never made a case for why we need so much milk. I was motivated to attend a packed meeting of Stevens County officials where they were considering giving the dairy a permit.
The outcome of the meeting was that the county officials did not issue a permit, but adjourned to think about it. At the time, I made a prophecy.
In the end, a small group of old white men, the planning commission, will retreat into a meeting room and make the decision, and I predict that they will decide that Riverview doesn’t need any more studies of their environmental impact. The county has a total population of 10,000, and this one dairy operation will be pumping out waste equivalent to the output of a city of 750,00 people, but we’ll just let them do their thing and then find out the consequences. Short-sightedness will win again.
Am I a true prophet? The Land Stewardship Project shares the latest news.
On Tuesday, Sept. 1, Stevens County officials approved Riverview’s conditional use permit for the proposed West River Dairy expansion near Morris. This decision largely clears the way for what will become the largest concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) in Minnesota history. Once completed, this 18,855-cow facility will be more than 60 times the size of the average Minnesota dairy.
The county’s approval comes after farmers and other rural residents expressed deep concerns over the past several months about the potential environmental and economic impacts of this facility. More than 1,400 people submitted official public comments about West River Dairy to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), and 1,140 people signed LSP’s petition calling for a full environmental impact statement (EIS).
Despite deep community concerns regarding incomplete local water data, massive water usage (319 million gallons per year), and 250 million gallons of liquid manure storage near impaired waterways, local officials declined to impose protective groundwater conditions. We are deeply disappointed in the county commissioners’ decision.
I have a gift.
You may have a gift, but I expect the elderly white men on the planning commission got bigger ones
What could go wrong?
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/19/cows-dairy-farm-texas-investigation/
As I commented at the time, having been on the other side of that table, I suspect the County received advice from their lawyers that they couldn’t defend a lawsuit by West River Dairy to force the County to accept their proposal. The choice they made was probably between granting conditional approval or using $100,000 of the Counties money to fight, and losing the battle in court. What the choice they made correct? I can’t say. But that was probably the choice they were offered.
However, that doesn’t mean that the project is going to progress. If the MPCA does get involved they can order an EIS and delay the project for several years. Just because conditional approval was granted doesn’t stop state or federal agencies from getting involved and halting a project. As I wrote before, if the County has enough evidence they can take to court, to defend the inevitable lawsuit seeking to overturn their decision, they may revoke their conditional approval. Conditional approval does not mean ground-breaking, it’s a limbo where details will still need to be worked out. It avoids a court order which would force the County to accept while also avoiding giving full approval to move ahead. If you know you are going to lose a battle, don’t fight.
I faced similar decisions on a few occasions when I was a Township Trustee, and I’ve watched neighboring communities do the same. There was a huge Pulte subdivision development which was intended to go into the township just north of us, it was granted conditional approval, on the condition they had a proper human waste disposal system. In the last six years nothing has happened because no surrounding community is willing (and in some cases they are unable) to accept the waste from this development. Pulte has floated the idea of a force main through my township, which we managed to kill in the courts. They have suggested building a processing plant on site, which has been rejected, and they have even looked at creating a holding take and using weekly trucks to move it to a processing plant. They even dug the hole for that. But none of that was ultimately approved.
It probably is not over yet.
It’s not. Riverview is antagonizing both the non-farming citizens and the smaller dairy farms in the area.
Google claims that last year 22 people in the U.S. lost their lives to cows. An angry 600 pound cow is no laughing matter. Stay safe.
Now that this 18,855 cow dairy facility is approved, it is time for the next project.
Could I interest Stevens county in an AI mega-data center?
The huge size of this animal feeding facility seems out of place with a single county.
“…massive water usage (319 million gallons per year), and 250 million gallons of liquid manure storage near impaired waterways, local officials declined to impose protective groundwater conditions. ”
The burden of proof that the groundwater, water table, in that area can support withdrawing 319 million gallons per year should be on the Riverview dairy. Every year for the foreseeable future. If it can’t, what will happen is that all the rural household water wells around the area will go dry and any farmers using groundwater irrigation will see the same.
It costs tens of thousands of dollars to redo a dry well.
This is what has happened in a lot of rural areas such as in Oklahoma and central California.
Really, the Stevens county commissioners should just issue them a conditional permit for 1, 800 cows and tell them to spread the other 16,000 + cows more evenly around Minnesota and the surrounding states.
raven @6: Well, with all the cattle, the AI data center should have plenty of bullshit to feed its training data.
South Dakota is the next state west from Minnesota.
This is the future for a lot of rural areas every where in the USA.
Drier climate, hotter summers, more wells pumping from the aquifers, what could go wrong?
Wells are drying up in a many places in the USA.
In this article they are calling shallow wells, anything that goes down up to 1,000 feet.
A thousand foot well is going to cost $100,000 according to this article. Even a well that deep might not produce enough water.