PENNOCK, Minn. — The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) today called on one of the country’s largest dairy farming firms and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to release details on a recent manure spill that was reported in southwestern Minnesota’s Kandiyohi County.

According to the West Central Tribune, Riverview, LLP officials reported to state officials that on Feb. 28 manure escaped a holding tank at the Meadow Star Dairy near Pennock. Riverview owns the operation, and the tank is part of a manure digester biogas system installed at the dairy by Amp Americas. Amp Americas has also constructed digesters at Riverview’s East Dublin Dairy near Murdock in Swift County, Swenoda Dairy near Montevideo in Swift County and Louriston Dairy near Murdock in Chippewa County.

When contacted by the Land Stewardship Project, a spokesman for the MPCA provided this statement:

“We are aware of a spill of manure at a farm in Kandiyohi County. We are monitoring clean-up and working with the reporting party to determine the cause. At this time, there is no indication that there has been an impact to waterways. It’s important to note that proper siting helps ensure that surface waters are still protected when a major release like this happens. The amount that was released is part of an ongoing investigation. A majority of the release was contained in a stormwater pond, and the owner has transferred the contents to an existing manure storage basin onsite.”

An official with Amp Americas told the Tribune that a “mechanical, physical failure of the tank occurred.” The Tribune reported that “less than a week’s worth” of manure was spilled — no other specifics were provided on the amount of manure released.

According to an article published in Agweek in 2015, Meadow Star Dairy originally went online milking 7,000 cows, with 1,500 dry cows also housed on the 20-acre site. Based on the figure that on a daily basis a lactating cow produces 18 gallons of manure and a dry cow 10 gallons of manure, a conservative estimate is that Meadow Star produces at least 141,000 gallons of manure daily.

To put the spill in context, it would take the average-sized Minnesota dairy farm (223 head) six months to produce the same amount of manure that Meadow Star does in just five days.  If the spill had occurred at an average-sized Minnesota dairy, the amount spilled over a five-day period would be less than what Meadow Star produces in just 3.5 hours.

Riverview is based in Morris, Minn., and is one of the largest milk producers in the country. It also has operations in Arizona, Nebraska, New Mexico and South Dakota. Despite serious concerns raised by local residents related to potential impacts on water and air quality, North Dakota officials recently gave Riverview the green light to build a 12,500-head dairy near Abercombie, in the eastern part of the state.

The Land Stewardship Project is concerned about the lack of information available to local residents related to the manure spill at Meadow Star Dairy. This is particularly important given serious concerns raised in the past by farmers and other rural residents when it comes to Riverview’s potential environmental impacts. Earlier this week, during an LSP town hall meeting held near Morris with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, participants expressed concerns about the impact Riverview’s facilities were having on local water resources. LSP is calling on officials with Riverview and the MPCA to release the following information in an expedited manner:

1. Specifically, how much manure was released during the incident?
2. What is the specific nature of the “mechanical” failure that caused the spill, and does similar infrastructure exist at other Riverview facilities in the region?
3. How much time elapsed between the release of the manure and its discovery?
4. What measures are being taken to prevent the contamination of local water resources?
5. What measures are being taken by Riverview to prevent similar future incidents from occurring at Meadow Star, as well as other facilities owned by the firm?
6. What enforcement actions are being taken by the MPCA in reference to this incident?

As the MPCA moves toward amending its current set of feedlot rules, this manure spill reinforces that rural residents who live and farm in communities near such facilities deserve transparency from the owners of large concentrated animal feeding operations as well as the government agencies whose stated mission is to protect the environment and serve the public good. People and communities that are most likely to be impacted by such incidents deserve to hear firsthand how they occurred and what’s being done to prevent future spills.

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The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering an ethic of stewardship for farmland, promoting sustainable agriculture and developing healthy communities in the food and farming system. LSP has offices in the Minnesota communities of Montevideo, Lewiston and South Minneapolis.