Factory Farms and the Environment
Photo by Guy Hand
GH: Another story concerning the alleged environmental impacts of feedlots and factory farms in Southern Idaho. In this case the judge has ruled in favor of the accused feedlot manager.
There has been a tremendous growth in feedlots and large-scale dairies in Southern Idaho over the past decade or so.
With them has come concerns over environmental and cultural impacts.
Northwest Food News has looked into the issue before:
Here’s the recent story from the Associated Press:
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Federal prosecutors failed to prove allegations that a southern Idaho feedlot manager discharged water tainted by manure and bacteria into the groundwater in 2005, a judge has ruled.
Cory King, a manager at Double C Farms near Burley, is scheduled to be sentenced next month on four counts of violating the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and corresponding state laws and one count of lying to a state investigator.
King was convicted in April by a jury in Pocatello of illegally discharging fluids into the aquifer through a series of pipes and irrigation wells without a permit. During the trial, U.S. District Judge B. Linn Winmill prohibited prosecutors from presenting any evidence or testimony related to the exact contents of the fluids.
But in an effort to determine an appropriate sentence, the judge held a hearing this month and allowed prosecutors to make their case that the fluids were tainted with manure and other contaminants and that King knowingly polluted the aquifer between May and June 2, 2005.
Prosecutors relied on testimony from former feedlot employees and a water sample taken in late June that showed a presence of E. coli and fecal coliform.
Defense attorneys discredited the testimony of the former employee, who was fired from the operation. The defense also attacked the sample testing method and claimed the sample was irrelevant, simply taken too late to get an accurate picture of the water injected into the aquifer during the period of illegal activity identified by prosecutors.
Winmill agreed Monday, saying the government failed to make a clear and convincing case that King polluted the environment.
The ruling will also likely make King eligible for a lesser punishment under federal sentencing guidelines, Winmill said.
“The conduct here, injecting what the court must assume was innocuous fluids without a permit, is obviously less harmful than injecting a hazardous or toxic substance without a permit,” the judge wrote.
King is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 15 and intends to appeal his conviction. Defense lawyers say they intend to argue at the appellate level that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate groundwater in Idaho and has no jurisdiction to prosecute alleged violations.
Winmill in September rejected King’s motion for a new trial.
