
Yakima County Dairies Ordered To Test Drinking Water
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Spokane ordered a trio of central Washington dairies to provide water filters for nearby residents as well as test area wells for nitrate contamination. Judge Thomas Rice issued the preliminary injunction December 17th at the request of the EPA against Cow Palace, DeRuyter and Liberty dairies in Yakima County. According to Capital Press, Rice ruled the EPA was likely to prove its allegations that the dairies are polluting groundwater, saying that the high nitrate levels in the groundwater are an extreme danger to the public's health. The EPA alleges the three dairies have not done enough over the past decade to keep manure from contaminating an aquifer supplying drinking water.
Meanwhile the dairies deny the allegations and say they've spent millions of dollars to contain manure, monitor groundwater and provide water to area residents.
The dairies will have to test wells within 3.5 miles down gradient of the dairies and provide filters or drinking water to homes with high levels of nitrate. Rice’s decision added that the dairies must provide one gallon of drinking water per day per person. Liberty Dairy auctioned off its cows in October.
Click Here to read the entire Capital Press article.
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