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IDEM’s manure lagoon rule is attracting public attention

 

By SUSAN BLOWER

Indiana Correspondent

 

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — A proposed state rule governing the construction and operation of manure lagoons by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) has garnered media and public attention.

Last week’s preliminary adoption of the new rule applies the same standards that govern manure lagoons on a confined feeding operation (CFOs and CAFOs) to other large manure pits, not located on livestock or poultry farms, called satellite manure storage structures (SMSS).

To be covered by the new proposed ruling, the SMSS must be designed to hold at least one million gallons of liquid manure or 5,000 cubic yards of dry manure. The man-made structures can be in the form of lagoons, tanks, or buildings used to store or treat manure.

A final ruling by the Indiana Environmental Rules Board is expected in January at the earliest, said Barry Sneed, public information officer for IDEM. The preliminary draft was unanimously passed by the 15-member board on Sept. 10.

Prior to last week’s meeting, the Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC) sent out an email blast raising environmental and human health concerns.

According to HEC, Indiana is importing large volumes of animal waste from other states to store in SMSS. But IDEM has no way of confirming or denying where the waste is coming from, said Lauren Aguilar, senior environmental manager at IDEM.

Indianapolis television station WTHR and The Indianapolis Star have highlighted the ruling with an emphasis on environmental concerns. Dumped in Indiana: State panel gives preliminary OK for new manure storage rules was the title of WTHR’s program, aired Sept. 10.

WTHR claims to have uncovered four years ago that thousands of truckloads of manure were being exported from Ohio poultry farms to eastern Indiana.

Currently, there are only a few SMSS in the state. Sneed said one is in Henry County, and other media outlets have reported one or two in Randolph County. The existing facilities store manure shipped from other Indiana farms in general, according to Indiana Farm Bureau’s Justin Schneider, senior policy adviser and legal counsel.

"Would I be surprised if someone built a structure to store poultry manure somewhere? No, but based on the information from the farms I know of, the manure is coming from other Indiana farms," Schneider said.

IDEM is working to regulate the SMSS to cover any loopholes in state law, not to address Ohio concerns, Schneider said. However, state laws do not prohibit manure from crossing state lines.

"Manure from out of state is technically allowed in SMSS, but based on our information, there might be only two locations in Indiana," said Aguilar, who helped write the ruling.

Aguilar also told Farm World that SMSS have been allowed in the state for many years, but this is the first rule promulgating them. Currently, there is no federal regulation of SMSS.

Sneed said the intent of the new rule is to protect Indiana’s waters from animal waste stored in SMSS.

On a broader level, an incident of blue-green algae in Grand Lake St. Marys in western Ohio prompted Ohio farmers to look for other places to ship their manure, and that situation uncovered a "loophole" in state regulation, Sneed said.

While there is adequate regulation of CFO and CAFO manure lagoons, a few stand-alone lagoons were built to contain animal waste from other farms, Sneed explained.

Sneed said there is a public misconception that the new rule is to govern manure imported from Ohio. He said the Ohio incident only prompted IDEM to act in an area that was overlooked before. "This rule is not about manure from Ohio. It is about manure lagoon storage for dry manure or 1 million gallons of liquid manure," Sneed said.

Under the new proposal, farms will have to submit engineering drawings and a report of the number of animals and amount of manure production, Sneed said, which is identical to what the CFOs and CAFOs in the state already do under IDEM permits.

HEC and other environmental groups in Indiana do not believe the new proposed rule protects Hoosier’s interests. Some concerned citizens have voiced complaints of smell and safety concerns about their drinking water.

"The proposed rule poses an unreasonable risk to rural Hoosiers by allowing unlined manure lagoons to be built in sensitive areas such as 100-year flood plains with direct access to surface and ground waters," said Kim Ferrano, HEC’s director of water policy.

"It lacks any meaningful notice or public commenting provisions to give impacted neighbors a say in whether a proposed SMSS should be permitted, and leaves locals with the cost of cleaning up the mess if (and when) a leak occurs and damages the community," Ferrano said.

In response to public comments of that nature, IDEM has stated that the new proposed rule is equivalent to the current guidelines governing manure lagoons on CFOs and CAFOs.

Also, manure lagoons are required to be built in soils with acceptable permeability, measured in the strictest terms, and surrounded by two feet of clay, Sneed said.

In the face of criticism that IDEM does not go far enough to protect the public health or environment, Sneed said that IDEM rules are more stringent than EPA rules.

For example, IDEM requires 1,864 farms in the state to operate with permits, while under EPA guidelines, the state would only need to regulate 10-15 farms, or a "handful" of farms, in accordance with the number of animals on their operations, Sneed said.

HEC charges that SMSS endanger the health of the public and the environment due to potential groundwater contam-ination. "We have yet to have an instance of that, but that is why the rules cover SMSS," Sneed said.

9/17/2014