GRAND FORKS — Madeline Luke, a volunteer with the Dakota Resource Council, urged the Red River Basin Commission board during a Thursday meeting to strengthen water quality monitoring for the Red River and its tributaries in light of two large dairy projects expected to be built less than 2 miles from the river.
The two projects, proposed by Minnesota-based Riverview LLP, received permits in recent months. The 25,000-head site — which Luke claims is larger than any previous Riverview project — will be located in Herberg Township, near Hillsboro. The smaller project, with 12,500 cows, will be located in Abercrombie, North Dakota. With the establishment of these dairies, an anticipated 300 million gallons of animal waste will be stored in lagoons less than 2 miles away from the Red River, according to a press release issued by the Dakota Resource Council.
Representatives from the Dakota Resource Council, West Central Minnesotans for Clean Water and Manitoba Eco-Network spoke during the RRBC board meeting Thursday, Nov. 6, at the C’mon Inn in Grand Forks. Among the board members was a representative from the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality, the organization being sued by the Dakota Resource Council for allegedly issuing the Herberg dairy permit without necessary pollution controls.
Luke called for a moratorium to be placed on these projects until there’s a thorough review of all related permits, opportunity for public comment and evaluations completed by outside entities. She also asked that the International Joint Commission examine the track record of enforcement actions taken in previous cases to identify gaps she believes exist in the system.
“These projects must be held liable for any pollution coming from their operation,” Luke said.
She referenced two cases — that she did not name — that she believes raised legitimate questions about the consistency of enforcement. She said there were examples of equipment fixes that took years, data that wasn’t submitted until the source was reminded multiple times, and more animals than permitted to be at a location.
“There are no penalties for any of these violations,” Luke said.
She questioned what she sees as the apparent lack of monitoring required for the Abercrombie and Herberg sites, and said the lagoons will carry salt, antibiotics, nutrients, hormones, bacteria, parasites and industrial chemicals into the Red River.
Luke believes there could be issues caused by extreme weather events, equipment failures — such as hoses leaking while carrying waste to fields, where it is planned to be used as manure — as well as issues inherent in the projects due to the lack of a baseline soil test and other studies. She claims Riverview’s own agronomist said soil tests that were done were faulty and needed to be repeated.
“Without a valid baseline soil test, it’s impossible to come up with a nutrient management plan,” Luke said.
Luke and Stephanie Marinowski, representing the West Central Minnesotans for Clean Water, were both previously members of the RRBC board. Marinowski said the commission “has a long history of wanting to achieve a basin-wide commitment to comprehensive, integrated watershed stewardship and management by balancing natural systems and human needs.”
She asked the board members who represent North Dakota to listen to the pleas of their citizens and be diligent in the permitting process, considering the environmental impacts.
“It is much more costly to turn a blind eye to these concerns than to deal with them before they happen,” Marinowski said.
James Beddome, executive director for the Manitoba Eco-Network, spoke on behalf of a coalition. He said Lake Winnipeg is in a state of crisis, facing a loss of oxygen, toxic algae and excessive nuclear loads. He stressed that waters from the U.S. flow into that lake, and the two proposed dairy projects present concerns. He said the projects would include nearly the same number of cows located in dairies throughout the entirety of Manitoba, and said the herds in Manitoba are in much smaller groups with an average size of 190 cows per operation.
The RRBC board made no comments on the issue other than to thank the speakers for providing information.
Also during the meeting, RRBC board members gave updates on projects throughout North Dakota, Minnesota and Manitoba, including the
Netley-Libau Marsh Restoration Project,
designed to revitalize the deteriorating wetland, which is the largest freshwater coastal wetland in North America, according to the meeting presentation.
Sediment baffles were installed that are intended to naturally trap sediment as it flows into the marsh. Within the first year, the sediment trapping was unsuccessful due to low waters not reaching the baffles, but new vegetation that was planted for the project has become taller, denser and more diverse than in other areas.
