Fall 2002 - Lone Star Chapter, Sierra Club

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8 Lone Star Sierran Fall 2002 Your Environment Texas Water Sentinels Campaign Continues Efforts to Protect the Leon River Watershed Central Texas Sierrans Get First Hand Look at CAFO Operations By Justin Taylor, Water Quality Project Coordinator, Lone Star Chapter The Texas Water Sentinels Campaign, a project of the Lone Star Chapter funded by a national Sierra Club grant, continued its efforts this summer to address water pollution from large-scale industrial dairy farms in Central Texas. The Water Sentinels Campaign is conducting ongoing water quality sampling, opposing permits for new and expanding dairy CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations), and working with regional Sierra Club members and other citizens to educate and inform them about the dairy industry in this region. The rapid expansion of dairy CAFOs in Central Texas has contributed to the impairment of water quality in the Bosque and Leon River watersheds, and threatens the drinking water supplies of Lake Waco and Lake Belton. Wildcat Dairy Permit Expansion Approved On June 21 the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) officially denied the seven motions to overturn the state permit for expansion of the Wildcat Dairy from 990 to 4000 head of dairy cattle. [See the Summer 2002 issue of the Lone Star Sierran for details about the expansion of the dairy and the concerns about the impact on water quality in the Leon River watershed.] Adjacent landowners, the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation, the Bell County Health District, and the cities of Temple, Belton, and Killeen filed the motions in April. The motions were filed out of concern that the dairy expansion would further degrade the already impaired Leon River and potentially threaten Lake Belton, an impoundment on the Leon River that serves as the drinking water supply for the three Justin Taylor talks with Central Texas Sierrans about dairy waste issues at a stop to view the Frank Brand Dairy. cities noted above. Contaminated runoff from dairy CAFOs, a factor of the tremendous volumes of waste produced by hundreds or thousands of dairy cows, produces elevated levels of nutrients and pathogens and depresses oxygen levels in streams. The Commission, composed of three Commissioners appointed by the Governor, acted upon the recommendations of the TNRCC Executive Director. They issued the standard response to the concerns raised in the motions by the adjacent landowners, local governments, and environmental groups — that the dairy expansion is not a new source of pollution (and, therefore, does not require a higher level of regulation). The Commissioners let the time to respond to these motions expire, overruling them by an “operation of law.” Although the decision by the Commissioners was not surprising, their unwillingness to work with the variety of affected stakeholders in this case was more evidence of the failure of TNRCC to exercise strong regulatory oversight of the dairy industry in Central Texas. The final recourse to try and stop the expansion of the Wildcat Dairy is a lawsuit in state district court. The landowners have already filed to sue the Executive Director and the Commission for issuance of the Photo courtesy of Ken Kramer
in the suit on their behalf. As of this writing, the other entities who filed motions to overturn Executive Director’s initial decision to approve the expansion have not decided whether to join in the litigation. The case should go to court some time late this year. A victory in this case would set an important precedent affecting the fate of future permits for CAFO expansions in the Leon River watershed, which is currently seeing an explosion of requests for new and expanded dairies. Central TX Sierrans Tour Dairy Locations On July 13 members of the Central Texas Regional Group of the Sierra Club took a tour of dairy locations in the Leon River watershed. Lone Star Chapter Director Ken Kramer and I drove the members to an area with a high concentration of dairy CAFOs, stopping by several facilities to give the group a first-hand look at the facilities. Many of the tour group participants were surprised Photo courtesy of Ken Kramer at the size and density of these dairy facilities and their environmentally destructive potential. It was a good introduction to the actual state of the dairy industry in this area for those who had never seen it. A graphic demonstration of the pollution potential of the dairies was a dead cow in a creek bed by the side of one of the county roads the tour group traveled. The dead cow had probably been dumped upstream, and the body had washed down to its final resting place. The dead cow was sighted at practically the same spot where the bones from another dead cow that had been seen on an earlier visit were located. Central Texas Sierrans had an opportunity during the tour to visit at the home of Carolyn and Paul Smith, some of the adjacent landowners in Comanche County who are opposing the expansion of the Wildcat Dairy. Carolyn Smith has lived in this area outside Gustine, Texas all of her life. As a girl she swam in South Leon River (which feeds into the Leon River) and her son grew up fishing in the Central Texas Sierrans and Justin Taylor visit with Carolyn and Paul Smith, adjacent landowners apposing the expansion of the Wildcat Dairy. Lone Star Sierran Fall 2002 9 Your Environment same spot. Now she says that her cows will not even drink that water, much less does any human go into the water, which is the repository of runoff from the Wildcat Dairy. More Water Sentinels Campaign Activities The Water Sentinels Campaign is continuing to work with landowners, concerned citizens, and cities downstream of these dairies to keep them educated and informed of new developments and assist with opposing new permits as applications are filed with the state environmental regulatory agency (as of September 1 the TNRCC officially became the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality or TCEQ). On August 10 the project held a volunteer monitoring training program, where volunteers were trained to sample and analyze water quality from the Leon River and Lake Belton. In addition to activities in the Leon River watershed the Water Sentinels Campaign is also working with volunteers, area teachers and students, and the City of Waco in addressing concerns about dairy CAFO pollution in the Bosque River watershed. Lake Waco, an impoundment on the Bosque River, is the drinking water supply for the City of Waco, which has been an active leader in efforts to curb dairy CAFO pollution. For more information on the Water Sentinels Campaign, contact Justin Taylor at the Sierra Club State Conservation office in Austin at 512-477-1729 or via email at justin.taylor@sierraclub.org.
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Fall 2002 - Lone Star Chapter, Sierra Club

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