Walnut Grove CAFO Fact Sheet
October 6, 2006
By St. Joe County Quality of Life
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* 3,500 COWS on 50 ACRES will generate as much waste as a city of 100,000 people, all going to an open cesspool!
* A 12-acre waste lagoon will sit on top of the Kankakee aquifer which is the same unconfined aquifer that feeds all the area lakes, thousands of private wells, and Lakeville's town well!
* Plans for this mega-dairy show that these lagoons will be lined with only compacted soil, not concrete!
* This enormous open-air cesspool will sit in shallow, wet ground, right next to the FEMA-designated floodplain, only 700 feet from the East Bunch Ditch which runs to the Yellow River, the Kankakee, and finally the Mississippi river!
* Liquid manure from the lagoon will be pumped out over surrounding floodplain acreage - shallow-tiled muck soils which, according to the USDA soils survey are: "very poorly drained", with "seasonal water tables of 0-1 ft.", "severe hazard of effluent seepage", "hazard of leachate flow into groundwater", and "possible pollution of nearby shallow wells".
* Studies show that liquid manure from dairy factories is a preferred breeding ground for mosquitoes carrying the west-nile virus!
* Although IDEM does not address air quality, hydrogen sulfide and other toxic fumes coming off these manure lagoons and silage bunkers have been shown to cause eye irritation, breathing disorders, brain damage in children, and miscarriages!
* Vreba-Hoff Development Co., who is providing engineering support for this operation, has been repeatedly cited and fined by EPA, IDEM, and by state entities in Michigan and Ohio for manure seepage, discharge of contaminated water into local storm drains, ditches and lakes, and violations of the Clean Water Act.
* The proposed operator of this facility, Peter Vandervegt, has a track record of environmental violations at a previous Walnut Grove facility here in Indiana, but IDEM does not take an operator's history into consideration when issuing CAFO permits.
* IDEM issues permits for these big factory farms (CAFOs), but does not consider the impact on public health or the environment.
* The St. Joseph County Health Dept. has drafted an ordinance to address the public health impacts of CAFOs, but it is unlikely that this ordinance will come in time to affect this huge new operation.
For additional information: 574-633-4981
St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN