Milk, yes, but not clean drinking water

Milk from Washington’s 200,000 dairy cows would taste a lot less sour going down if it wasn’t accompanied by 24 million pounds of unregulated manure polluting our water every day.

Unfortunately, Governor Inslee and the Department of Ecology don’t seem to understand the connection between large concentrated animal feed operation (CAFO) waste run-off and pollution of our streams, waterways, and most importantly, drinking water supplies. Or maybe it is even worse — the department does understand that untreated manure from CAFOs is contaminating drinking water supplies with toxic nitrates which can cause birth defects and other health consequences, and yet is still proposing a CAFO permit that won’t protect people and the environment.

Whichever the case — ignorance or negligence — we deserve better; we deserve clean water and need a stronger CAFO permit includes clear and enforceable limits on pollution, ground and surface water testing in sensitive areas, and requirement to use reasonable and cost-effective technologies, such as not over-applying dairy wastes to fields that cannot absorb them and using lined manure lagoons, to dramatically reduce pollution.

This story was originally published September 17, 2016 at 8:35 AM with the headline "Milk, yes, but not clean drinking water."