Friends of Rural New York

The Coon family, neighbors in the community, and myself as well, have
been in contact with The New
York State Health Department, The Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC), The New
York State EPA office, The Army Corps of Engineers, The New York State
Attorney General’s
office, as well as county offices to discuss problems associated with
Willet Dairy Corporation. What
we have all found through our countless calls, e-mails and letters is
that these organizations seem to
take turns passing responsibility back and forth, while residents of
Cayuga County fight for what seems
to be a simple right in America. Water! Not just any kind of water,
CLEAN water. Drinkable water.

Agribusiness Uses Farm Laws as Cover
EarthVision Environmental News

CAYUGA COUNTY, NY, July 20, 2001 - Current environmental laws in the
United States that were
created to help small farmers are now being abused by corporations that
have found ways through the
cracks of the same laws in the name of agriculture. The Coon Family in
Cayuga County New York
can tell you how well the current agricultural laws are working for
residents there. They have
witnessed first hand what life near a ‘farmer’ is like.

Dennis Eldred started his dairy business in 1978. Fred Coon said that
by 1979, seemingly overnight, the
company suddenly bloomed into a major dairy operation, with the support
of New York’s major
environmental/health departments, as well as colleges and universities
such as Cornell University. He
rightfully has their backing. He is operating as an agricultural
operation, and therefore falls under the
laws that were made to regulate farms that operate on a much smaller
scale.

Fred Coon has lived in his home all his life. The family holds deeds to
their property from 1797. He
married Pearl, raised their children and now is afraid to have his
grandchildren come over, and
rightfully so, for health reasons. The well on their property is
contaminated with e-coli.

The water that flows through the creek on the Coon property originates
from the Willet Dairy property.
Their property touches their ‘farmer’ neighbor, Willet Dairy
Corporation, on 2 sides. The corporation,
which operates a ‘farm’ with over 6,500 dairy cows, is one of many
agri-businesses that fall under the
current laws that are meant to help the smaller farmers, that instead
give more power to these growing
agri-businesses.

The result is that the care and concern for the health of the general
public is no longer as important as
the amount of revenue the state brings in through corporations like
Willet Dairy.

The Coon family, and others in their community have been fighting a
losing battle for the last 2 years.

The problem is a corporation with the amount of dairy cows Willet has
produces what should be called
industrial waste. Instead, Willet Dairy falls through the cracks of the
laws intended to help small
farmers stay in business. Imagine that each of those 6,500 cows produce
approximately 14 lbs of
waste per day. That works out to 91,000 lbs of waste per day. That is
not the amount of waste that an
average farmer produces on a dairy farm, and not an amount of waste
that can be managed properly,
as the residents of Cayuga County can tell you.

The manure is contaminating the waters in the county. From rivers and
streams, to private wells
through out the community. E-coli has been found when residents go
through New York State
Department of Health certified water testing companies to have their
wells tested. Incredibly, when the
health department makes its way out there, they find no e-coli. The
water is safe to drink, although no
state agency has accepted any offer to enjoy a glass of water straight
from the faucet in the Coon
home. Their simplified answer to the Coon family, and other families in
the community is to buy bottled
water. That is good and fine when you have a job with a state or
federal agency that pays you well
enough to buy bottled water if you choose, but not if you are retired
and living off social security to
make ends meet. They already have enough of an expense getting their
wells tested from someone
they feel they can trust. Sadly, it seems none of those people work for
the government in New York.

Under current EPA laws, we have what is called The Safe Drinking Water
Act. The act states:

“The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which celebrated its 25th
anniversary in 1999, is the main
federal law that ensures the quality of Americans’ drinking water.
Under SDWA, EPA sets standards
for drinking water quality and oversees the states, localities, and
water suppliers who implement those
standards. “

That works for most Americans, but not if you are living in America,
drinking, bathing, cooking and
cleaning with water from a well. I asked an official at the EPA how
there could not be any laws that
regulated water from private wells. There once was a belief that ground
water just took care of itself.
The growth of agri-business, along with other environmental impacts,
have made environmental
agencies re-think their original theory, but it seems not quite enough
yet to pass any type of legislation
to protect drinking water from private wells. He also said that the
Clean Water Act has been held up in
Congress for years, they have not even looked at it.

The Clean Water Act, which governs surface water contamination, it is
supposed to assure us that
agricultural run-off is not contaminating surface water. Fred and Pearl
Coon have a creek that runs
into a pond on their property. The pond is graduated at levels from 2’
- 12’. You cannot see further than
approximately 2’ in the pond because it is filled with liquid manure.
The Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC) has been out on a regular basis to test water from
the creek on their property,
they have found e-coli in the water, and have seen the manure in the
pond. Yet, for some reason, no
action has been taken to find the source of the contamination in their
pond. I did speak with Gene
Kelly, the Assistant Attorney General who is investigating this case.
He has been investigating the
events in Cayuga County since June of 2000. In a telephone conversation
with Gene Kelly in
November of 2000, the following conversation occurred:

“You can look at the pond on the Coon property and see and smell that
there is liquid manure sitting in
there, why is it that nothing is being done about that? This is a
direct violation of the Clean Water Act,
as it is supposed to protect our rivers and streams from agricultural
run-off. If the Coon family creek
and pond has liquid manure in it, and if the source of their water
comes directly from Willet Dairy, why
is nothing being done about this?”

He agreed and added, “In order to be able to prove something in court
though, you need to be able to
do more than just say it looks like manure. You have to be able to show
that it is in fact manure. You
don’t have to necessarily prove where it came from, because that can be
an impossible task. But given
the fact that there is a very large dairy farm, with over 7,000 cows,
just upstream from them, it seems
pretty likely that if there is manure in their stream, that is where it
came from.”

“You are right.” He went on to say, “There are federal statutes that
could be invoked. There also are
state statutes, and quite frankly, we would probably just proceed under
the state statutes.”

“So then you will be testing the sediment in their pond then?”

He answered; “Yes there will be a lot of different tests that will be
done. It won’t just be well water.”

To date no one has been out to take a sediment sample from the Coon
pond.

The Coon family, neighbors in the community, and myself as well, have
been in contact with The New
York State Health Department, The Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC), The New
York State EPA office, The Army Corps of Engineers, The New York State
Attorney General’s
office, as well as county offices to discuss problems associated with
Willet Dairy Corporation. What
we have all found through our countless calls, e-mails and letters is
that these organizations seem to
take turns passing responsibility back and forth, while residents of
Cayuga County fight for what seems
to be a simple right in America. Water! Not just any kind of water,
CLEAN water. Drinkable water.
Water free of e-coli and other unnamed bacteria.

They also ask those agencies to help them clean their water as it flows
through their creeks, streams,
and eventually into Cayuga Lake. Residents who live along the lakeshore
have found liquid manure in
their lake as well.

The residents also would like the DEC and Army Corps to stop permitting
Willet Dairy to drain
wetlands on his property. The wetlands serve as a buffer to help
‘naturally’ clean the land. While this
cannot perform a miracle on the issues that are present in Cayuga
County, every little bit does help. As
Americans we have the false belief that our government is protecting
our wetlands. They are
protected, as long as an agricultural business does not need that land
for ‘improvements’ to their
property that benefit the farmer.

Sandra Doran from the Army Corp of Engineers stated that under the
clean water act, a lot of farming
activities are exempt. She advised me to look up the Code of Federal
Regulations (CFR), part 323.4
(a)iii. CFR 323.4 (a)iii states:

“Cultivating means physical methods of soil treatment employed within
established farming, ranching
and silviculture lands on farm, ranch, or forest crops to aid and
improve their growth, quality or yield.”

These ‘improvements’ can mean anything from a new driveway to new
mobile homes for the workers
on their land. As far as Sandra and the Army Corp of Engineers are
concerned, “He is in compliance
with all our regulations.” She was unable to comment on if he was in
violation of the Clean Water Act
as that falls under the jurisdiction of state of New York under the
Department of Environmental
Conservation.

She understands and sympathizes with the landowners in that community,
but she says, “They have to
understand which violations are with which agency.”

Is it the job of those who are working for the people of the United
States to make sure that laws are
being followed, or is it this a job that we, as American tax-paying
citizens have to pick apart each and
every violation and call up each individual agency that holds
jurisdiction to tell them what they should be
doing?

There is one small spot of hope for this community. It is obvious that
Willet Dairy is in violation of the
Clean Water Act. What needs to be done is for the sediment in the Coon
pond to be tested to see what
exactly it is. Since no one on a state level is willing to do that, and
if these people can prove
incompetence within the state agencies, the EPA can be brought in under
section 1431 and take
emergency power over the situation. Section 1431 states:

“Sec 1431 (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, the
Administrator, upon receipt of
information that a contaminant which is present in or is likely to
enter a public water system or an
underground source of drinking water may present an imminent and
substantial endangerment to the
health of persons, and that appropriate State and local authorities
have not acted to protect the health
of such persons, may take such sections as he may deem necessary in
order to protect the health of
such persons. To the extent he determines it to be practicable in light
of such imminent endangerment,
he shall consult with State and local authorities in order to confirm
the correctness of the information
on which action proposed to be taken under this subsection is based and
to ascertain the action which
such authorities are or will be taking. The action which the
Administrator may take may include (but
shall not be limited to) (1) issuing such orders as may be necessary to
protect the health of persons
who are or may be users of such system (including travelers), including
orders requiring the provision
of alternative water supplies by persons who caused or contributed to
the endangerment, and (2)
commencing a civil action for appropriate relief, including a
restraining order or permanent or
temporary injunction.”

Now it is the job of the people in the community to prove that the
state agencies have not in fact done
their job, and hope that the EPA can be granted power under this act.

This problem is not only in the state of New York; it is a problem that
needs to be addressed on a
national basis. People are facing similar problems in other areas of
New York, throughout the Midwest,
and currently in North Carolina, the EPA did invoke Section 1431 in a
similar situation with the hog
farming industry there. We need to redefine, on a national level, what
we consider to be a ‘farmer’ as
well as what a ‘farm’ is and what is actually industry vs. agriculture.

Dennis Eldred was contacted and given the opportunity to discuss the
issues involving his dairy
company. His response was, “I don’t know what the issues are.” He said,
“I am not really going to get
into this, and you really don’t know what you are talking about. This
thing is has reached a point of
absurdity; this is not something that I am going to entertain.”

We need to entertain a national discussion of these issues and redefine
what we consider to be a
“farmer” and what a farm is, and what is actually industry.
From
Phil Fredericks <pjf@nwark.com>

Date
Sat, 21 Jul 2001 14:24:41 -0500

Reply-To
Phil Fredericks <pjf@nwark.com>