S.D. dairy producer cited for pollution violations

A gigantic dairy operation near Minnesota's western border is violating manure storage law and suspected of allowing pollutants to enter public waterways.

South Dakota's largest dairy, Veblen East, and its neighbor Veblen West have been operating since the summer with too much manure in their huge lagoons, or ponds. Permits require that the ponds have at least two feet of space at the top so that manure won't overflow when it's windy or rainy.

"This is the biggest single dairy in South Dakota, and their lagoons are full to the brim, sitting at the headwaters of the Little Minnesota River, with Big Stone Lake at the bottom of the hill. Not a good thing," said Jay Gilbertson, manager of the East Dakota Water Development District, an office charged with protecting and conserving water resources.

Big Stone Lake has a dam and outlet at its southern end that feeds into the Minnesota River.

Rick Millner, CEO of both dairies, said that weather is to blame for the manure problems in South Dakota, and that dairy wastes have not polluted nearby streams. "We're working diligently to make sure that doesn't happen," he said.

South Dakota environmental officials issued a combined notice of violation to both dairies Sept. 18, and said they cannot discuss the details because the case is under enforcement.

The Veblen dairies are owned by the same firm that manages Excel Dairy near Thief River Falls, which was declared a public health hazard in 2008 for hundreds of air quality violations and odors that drove neighbors from their homes.

Citizens group took photos

Big Stone Lake Association, a citizens' group with Minnesota and South Dakota members, complained to South Dakota regulators last July about ponds brimming with waste at the Veblen dairies, and submitted aerial photos showing hay bales stacked along the rims to keep liquid waste from lapping over.

"We continue to work with the dairies and inspect them and have phone contact to follow their progress," said Jeanne Goodman, administrator for surface water quality for the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources. "They have submitted documents that we have required."

Goodman said Veblen East is permitted to hold up to 8,176 cows, and Veblen West a couple of miles away can have 5,500 cows.

The company has been pumping manure out of the ponds and spreading it on nearby farm fields in recent weeks, but the citizens' group said the ground is too wet to absorb the wastes and manure is running into streams.

Steve Berkner, president of the Big Stone Lake Association, said he and Big Stone County Commissioner Roger Sandberg flew over the area on Nov. 9. They observed a chocolate-brown plume of pollution swirling into Big Stone Lake from the Little Minnesota River, and traced the pollution north for about 45 miles, up the meandering river and one of its tributaries to the dairies.

"The water the whole way up there was brown, and we saw lots of foam on the creek when it was going around rocks," said Berkner.

Sandberg said successful dairies are important to the local economy, but so is clean water.

"Big Stone Lake is one of our true natural resources," he said. "Damage causes an impairment to developments that could occur along the lake, or those that exist."

Goodman said that an agency inspector visited the area Nov. 10 and saw no runoff.

Millner said that the dairies are pumping manure out of the ponds, but not because the state ordered them to do so. "Them telling me to do the pumping has nothing to do with it," he said. "We have to pump or we couldn't stay in operation."

Millner said that dairies have only a little time to pump manure out of storage ponds and onto nearby fields -- in spring before crops are planted and in fall after harvest. Unusually wet weather this year meant late planting and late harvest, he said, resulting in the manure buildup.

To avoid excessive manure in ponds next year, Millner said, the dairies have installed five pivot irrigators on nearby farm fields and will add six more next year that can spray manure during the growing season.

Links to Minnesota dairies

Millner is CEO of Prairie Ridge Management Co. of Veblen, S.D., which also owns two dairies in Minnesota and one in North Dakota.

Excel Dairy near Thief River Falls violated its Minnesota air quality permit hundreds of times, and emitted high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas that made neighbors sick and drove them from their homes. Last April the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Citizens' Board revoked and reissued the dairy's permit, giving its owner one year to get its operations back on track.

"That's illegal as hell," said Millner, who has appealed the decision about the new permit to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

MPCA director of regional divisions Gaylen Reetz said that Excel missed a June 12 deadline to clean out manure pits. Inspectors have checked regularly, including as recently as last week, said Reetz. Some of the cleanup has been done but not all of it, he said.

"They are still not in compliance with the permit or the directives in the administrative order," said Reetz. "We are deciding on our next step."

Millner blames the MPCA for the odor problems because of a previous order to empty and check the integrity of the dairy's largest manure pond.

"We're not the bad guys here," he said, and the dairy has done everything asked of it. "The problem has been that it's gotten political and the media has grabbed onto it in favor of the state."

Millner removed all 1,500 cows from Excel Dairy last winter, and moved them to the company's four other dairies.

The firm's other Minnesota dairy, near Hoffman in the west-central part of the state, also had manure storage problems and was fined $17,600 in 2006.

Gilbertson, the water district manager in eastern South Dakota, said that regulators in his state have moved too slowly in citing the Veblen dairies for violations.

"This is not a mom-and-pop operation," he said. "This is an industrial milk production facility and needs to be treated as such. This is no one's definition of a family farm."

Tom Meersman • 612-673-7388