Police Probe Alleged Well-Tampering Near Dairy Farm

AP ^ | 9/8/05

[Revel]

Police Probe Alleged Well-Tampering Near Dairy Farm

POSTED: 9:46 am EST September 8, 2005 UPDATED: 9:49 am EST September 8, 2005

Police are going door to door interviewing neighbors of a confined-feeding dairy farm after some of its groundwater monitoring wells were contaminated.

The owner of the Union-Go Dairy suspects that someone cut padlocks, opened lids and contaminated two of the dairy's four groundwater monitoring wells with harmful amounts of bacteria and nitrogen.

"Detectives are working on it," said Randolph County Sheriff Jay Harris. "They are going to canvass the area to see if anyone saw anything."

Dutch immigrant Tony Goltstein owns the 1,650-cow dairy farm, which is set to open soon. There are no cows at the dairy farm yet.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management issued a permit to Union-Go last September over the objections of hundreds of opponents who are appealing the permit.

The farm's consultant, Julie French of Gordon & Associates in Bentonville, said it could cost Goltstein thousands of dollars to decontaminate the two wells or tens of thousands of dollars if he is required to drill two new wells.

"We will let IDEM determine if the wells need to be sanitized or if we need to dig new wells," French said. "The levels we found were way above recreational and drinking water standards."

Potential sources of the contamination include manure and fertilizer.

Environmentally Concerned Citizens of Randolph County claims the site Goltstein chose for his farm is inappropriate for the dairy. In particular, they say its 7.2-acre, 20-million-gallon manure lagoon is inappropriate because of seasonal high water tables, shallow residential water wells nearby and its proximity to a nearby creek.

Members of the ECCRC denied involvement in the well-tampering, which was reported to police on Aug. 25.

"We sure as heck wouldn't do it. I can't picture anybody in our group doing that," said ECCRC spokesman Keith Kranz. "These are law-abiding citizens who lived here many years before these people showed up. Most folks in our group are elderly anyway. I don't see how they could crawl or climb back there."

Brian Daggy, an agricultural consultant to the dairy farm, believes someone unhappy about the dairy farm going in tampered with the wells, hoping it would cause a problem.

"We can't prove anything, but this has made us suspicious and somewhat concerned," he said.

[Revel]

Just ran across this article at another forum. Someone obviously has a sense of humor since this is exactly the way in which factory farms are destroying the wells of individuals all over the country.

[mtbopfuyn]

Not that I condone what was done, I must say I'm on the side of the other folks in the area. I certainly wouldn't want a dairy farm up stream from my water well.

[cripplecreek]

"I certainly wouldn't want a dairy farm up stream from my water well."


Dumping manure down the well seems rather self defeating doesn't it?

[Revel]

"I certainly wouldn't want a dairy farm up stream from my water well."


You know they never were a problem at all until the factory farm model went into use. Designed by Cornell University in conjunction with the AG department of the federal government...the factory farm model is a disaster. At least it is in certain parts of the country where the soil contains a lot of gravel. In that kind of soil the liquid manure that gets poured out in the fields in huge quantities goes right into the aquifers and the drinking water. And this contamination will last for many years even if they stop dumping.

The only difference between the crime committed to this farm and the farm itself is that the farm will be committing a legalized version of the exact same crime.

They also store all of this liquid crap in above ground pits with makeshift walls. When these rupture as they did in northern NY recently then the result is a disaster. In NY the Black River was decimated.

Thanks for your concern.

[taxesareforever]

NIMBY.

[Revel]

"Dumping manure down the well seems rather self defeating doesn't it?"

I was thinking the exact same thing at first. But then if you think about it...a very small amount of this stuff dumped in a well would contaminate the well and be fairly localized. Unlike what is happening when the farmers dump thousands of gallons of it on just a few acres for extended periods of time. In that case the damage spreads far and wide.

[prophetic]

How much is anyone here willing to bet me that its some freaking "Animal Rights" group behind this contamination?

Most of those Animal Rights groups are really terrorist organizations in disguise and I dont respect or contribute to any of them.

[Revel]

Hard to say. It could just as well be someone in the community who knows how destructive these things are and wishes to ward it off. Another thing that is really sad about the factory farm model is that the farmers are destroying there own land. Studies have been done that show increased production in the short run- Followed by a big drop. In the end the old model is much better even in terms of production.

[PAR35]

Perhaps they should just use current readings for the baseline, and monitor for increases over that level. That would fix the environmentalist terrorists.

[BlazingArizona]

The owner of the Union-Go Dairy suspects that someone cut padlocks, opened lids and contaminated two of the dairy's four groundwater monitoring wells with harmful amounts of bacteria and nitrogen.

Ooooh - what if this stuff were to escape into the atmosphere?

[Bittersweetmd]

In the end the old model is much better even in terms of production.

Well of course. Some so called science has run a muck. No pun intended. ;)