Wednesday, August 17, 2005
The Manure Pit Was Made of Sand!
Official: Manure Pit Had ‘Obvious Problems’
Tuesday, August 16, 2005, 3:47pm
An official with the Jefferson County Soil And Water Conservation District says a manure pit that broke open had “obvious problems.”
Brian Wohnsiedler, the executive director of the district, spent six hours on the Marks farm in Lewis County last Friday, the day after the spill.
“There were certain obvious problems with that structure,” Wohnsiedler told 7 News.
Three million gallons of liquid manure gushed out of the pit, poisoning thousands of fish in the Black River and prompting continuing warnings to avoid drinking from the Black River.
Wohnsiedler works with farmers every day, and says liquid manure - and storage pits - are an important, necessary part of modern farming.
“This was an exception,” he said.
Our reporter on the story, Jessica Layton, tried repeatedly to reach the Marks farm for comment Tuesday, but was not successful.
In particular, Wohnsiedler says the manure pit that broke was not made from the material commonly used for such pits - clay.
“The storage structure was not made of a clay material that we would typically see in earthen storage structures. It was made out of a sand structure.”
Wohnsiedler said every farm that feeds 200 or more animals and stores manure has to meet federal standards that have been adopted by New York State.
He said he can only assume the problems with the manure pit were overlooked, not intentional.
“I don’t think anybody would knowingly take that type of risk, to have a manure storage structure of that size constructed out of a material that just is not suitable to contain the sheer volume and mass of manure that it held.”
The Department of Environmental Conservation is responsible for regulating the manure pits, and is investigating the spill.
WWNY-TV