Coalition Launches Campaign to Protect
New Mexico's Water
From Industrial Pollution
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 16, 2004Contacts:
Paul Elders, Concerned Citizens for Clean Water, 505-687-3044
Charlie Tebbutt, Western Environmental Law Center, 541-485-2471
Courtney Brown, Western Environmental Law Center, 505-751-0351
Aaron Isherwood , Sierra Club, 415-977-5680
Jim Murphy, National Wildlife Federation, 202-797-6893
Coalition Launches Campaign to Protect New Mexico's Water From Industrial Pollution
Citizens Tell Industrial Dairies: Clean Up Your Act!
Southeast New Mexico- Industrial-sized dairies need to be held accountable for massive pollution that threatens New Mexico's water. That is the message coming from a coalition of local, regional and national groups, in announcing today the largest legal action ever taken to hold industrial dairy polluters accountable in New Mexico.
Concerned Citizens for Clean Water, Sierra Club, and the National Wildlife Federation charge that five industrial dairies, also known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), are operating without the permits and oversight required under the Clean Water Act and pose significant threats to the waters of New Mexico and to the health of its people.
"If these industrial dairies keep polluting our water, the Land of Enchantment will be turned into the Land of Excrement," said Paul Elders of Concerned Citizens for Clean Water. "We have a clear choice: we can let this industry pollute our communities, or we can protect the New Mexico way of life by making sure they clean up their own mess."
Agriculture is a leading source of water pollution in the United States and CAFOs are among the biggest agricultural polluters. Livestock operations produce staggering quantities of waste. According to the EPA, a single dairy cow produces 120 pounds of wet manure a day, which is as much waste as is produced by 20-40 humans. Using a conservative figure of 20 humans as a multiplier, that means that a single 3,000 head industrial dairy will produce as much bodily waste in one day as a community of 60,000 people. Much of this waste is stored in open air lagoons, and the vast majority - roughly 90% - is spread untreated onto fields, where it can spill into rivers and playas or leach into groundwater. As these unregulated facilities expand in New Mexico, our waterways are put at risk.
Given the seriousness of the public health problems caused by livestock factories, the American Public Health Association recently called for a moratorium on new CAFO facilities. Other states have reacted to the dangers these facilities present: North Carolina has imposed a moratorium on new factory farms and counties across the country (even in states like Idaho and Nebraska) have also imposed moratoria against these industrialized CAFO operations. But New Mexico is the new Ground Zero for the factory dairies, which seem to be proliferating faster than the flies that swarm around them.
"New Mexico's water is scarce, and we need to avoid a contamination disaster before it happens," stated Charlie Tebbutt of the Western Environmental Law Center, the non-profit law firm spearheading the legal actions. "The Dairy Industry goes wherever the regulatory climate is weakest, and they think they can get away with this pollution in New Mexico. If the Bush Administration's Environmental Protection Agency isn't going to protect New Mexicans, groups that we represent, made up of the people most affected, will speak up to defend public health."
"This is about local family farms versus outsider agribusiness," stated Paul Elders, who was driven off his Clovis property by the fumes from these animal factories. "These huge facilities aren't from the community, and they don't behave responsibly when it comes to keeping our communities safe. They just don't seem to care how bad they stink, how much water they use, or how much water they pollute. I've never seen anything like it."
"We have members in our group who have lived on their land for generations," added Elders, "They're being deprived of their right to enjoy their own property because of the smell and the flies, the vermin and the dust caused by these industrialized dairies, not to mention their fear of the contamination and complete depletion of their domestic water supply."
The coalition sent "notices of intent to sue," required by the federal Clean Water Act, to five dairies in eastern and southeastern New Mexico. The five operations include: Philmar Dairies and Bonestroo Dairy in Portales, Tom Visser Dairy in Dexter, Rio Vista Dairy in Roswell, and County Line Dairies in Lake Arthur. Pollution problems have already emerged at these facilities. Rio Vista Dairy and Tom Visser Dairy discharge waste to the Hagerman Canal and Pecos River; the Bonestroo Dairy and Philmar Dairies put the Brazos River at risk and Philmar has repeatedly allowed its manure and urine muck to run into storm water drainage ditches and across state and county roads; and County Line Dairies illegally dumped cow carcasses and veterinary waste in March of 2004.
For more information visit Concerned Citizens for Clean Water's website at http://www.SaveOurWaterSupply.org; www.stopcafos.org; and www.westernlaw.org. The full text of the American Public Health Association request for a moratorium can be found at www.saveourwatersupply.org/health/apha_moratorium.html.
Click on a Link Below to Download Copies of the Actual "Notices of Intent to Sue:"
Philmar Dairies in PortalesBonestroo Dairy in Portales
Tom Visser Dairy in Dexter
Rio Vista Dairy in Roswell
County Line Dairies in Lake Arthur
