Dakota Ethanol Pays $75K Penalty for Environmental Violations

Dr. Blanchard has been hammering on the inefficiency and immorality of our federally subsidized ethanol industry. Now the EPA adds some black marks to the local ethanol industry.

Joe O'Sullivan at ThePostSD.com reports that back in October, Dakota Ethanol in Wentworth paid a $75,000 penalty to the Environmental Protection Agency for violations of the Clean Air Act. According to the EPA, Lake County's big ethanol plant emitted more volatile organic compounds than allowed, didn't do the right testing, and "failed to maintain the internal floating roof on the liquid inside several storage vessels at the plant."

The same settlement extracted $150,000 from ethanol producers Poet, James Valley, and Northern Lights for similar Clean Air Act at the Groton and Big Stone ethanol plants. Think of it as a rebate on our federal subsidies for the industry.

Now I know Dakota Ethanol was disappointed with the EPA for delaying adoption of the E-15 standard. But really, fellas, do you think breaking other EPA rules is going to encourage them to vote your way? Maybe this is why Kristi Noem was so intent on demanding the EPA administrator's resignation.

The Department of Justice has the full details of the Dakota Ethanol violations and Poet-James Valley-Northern Lights violations online.

Legislature to Audit DENR -- Time to Discuss CAFO Enforcement

The South Dakota Legislature Executive Board decided last week not to authorize the usual rounds of summer studies. Total savings: $40K–$60K. These savings seem rather paltry compared to the revenue and budget savings legislators might have been able to come up with by studying our tax system and other issues affecting South Dakotans.

But not all summer work was axed. Two committees will conduct the normal audits of two state departments: the Bureau of Administration and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The DENR study should be of particular interest to my neighbors around Veblen and Big Stone Lake who have had to work hard to get the agency to take action against the pollution caused by the giant Veblen feedlots owned by Richard Millner. (With one dairy in receivership and the other in Chapter 11 proceedings, owned by may not be wholly accurate any more.)

The purpose of these audits is to determine to need for and effectiveness of state programs. I would recommend folks affected by the Veblen CAFOs and other sources of pollution in South Dakota keep an eye on the Legislature's summer meeting schedule and make plans to submit letters or even testify to the appropriate committee.

Photos Show Veblen Dairy Manure Ponds Ringed with Bales

Last year concerned citizens up around Big Stone Lake traced a plume of pollution coming into their aquatic gem all the way back up the watershed to the massive feedlots near Veblen. Those feedlots have maintained illegally high manure levels that have drawn citation from South Dakota's Department of Environment and Natrual Resources.

Now you can see for yourself the illegal activity. Citizens for Big Stone Lake have posted the aerial reconnaissance they performed last year. In photo after photo, in different months, you can see hay bales lining the large manure lagoons, trying to keep the waste from spilling over into the surrounding farmland and the watercourses that run to Big Stone Lake.

Now the dairy folks may claim that they built the lagoons to specs but had to improvise with the hay bales because of high winds... but come on: you're building in South Dakota. You didn't factor wind into your design? If the lagoons aren't big enough to contain the manure the Veblen dairies are generating, owner Rick Millner evidently needs to reduce the amount of manure and the number of cattle he crowds into his facility. But some people have trouble playing by the rules.

Veblen CAFOs Wasting Our Tax Dollars with Enviromental Damage?

Speaking of CAFOs, a Grant County neighbor reminded me of a big watershed improvement project conducted in the Little Minnesota River and Big Stone Lake area in northeastern South Dakota. From 2000 to 2007, we spent over $1.3 million dollars from the EPA, USDA, SD GF&P, and other tax-supported entities to reduce phosphorus and sediment loads in that watershed. Among other things, the project installed animal waste management systems, developed grassed waterways and buffer strips, and did some educational outreach to farmers and landowners.

As you can read in the February 2007 project report, these activities achieved significant reductions in pollution and erosion. These gains were achieved through cooperation, not coercion, with local ag producers. These efforts appear to have helped improve Big Stone Lake from hypereutrophic to eutrophic condition.

And then comes Rick Millner with his giant factory feedlots upstream in Veblen. Millner's Veblen operations have been cited by South Dakota's Department of Environment and Natural Resources for illegal manure levels. DENR's action was prompted by complaints from citizens in the Big Stone Lake Association, who traced a brown plume of pollution pouring into Big Stone Lake all the way back up the watershed to Millner's CAFO doorstep. Another group, Citizens for Big Stone Lake, are gathering more data to support their call for more action to protect the lake from CAFO pollution (see Steve Berkner, letter to the editor, Ortonville Independent, 2009.12.01). And we saw what Big Stone Lake looked like this summer.

So here we see an example of a private businessman through his illegal actions undoing over a million dollars worth of successful environmental work. We paid for it with our tax dollars. Neighbors in northeast South Dakota made sacrifices and changed how they use their land to promote their general welfare. And one dairy operator apparently craps all over that investment.

Neighbors, taxpayers, I'd be a little irate.

DENR Cites Manure Violations at Millner Veblen Dairies

Factory feedlot owner Rick Millner continues to break the rules, threaten the environment, and blame everyone but himself. After flagrant and repeated environmental violations at his CAFOs in Minnesota, Millner's two cattle concentration camps in the Big Stone Lake watershed around Veblen are finally drawing attention from South Dakota's environmental authorities.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Tom Meersman, Millner's Veblen operations, including the biggest single dairy in the state, have been breaking the law, filling their manure lagoons to the brim, and risking pollution of the Little Minnesota River and Big Stone Lake. Dairy operators are supposed to keep the manure two feet below the edge of their lagoons to prevent heavy rain from flooding the lagoons and spilling manure. Millner's Veblen dairies have apparently let the manure levels rise so high that the dairy has piled hay bales around the lagoon edges in an attempt to stop crap from lapping over the edges.

On September 18, the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources formally cited Millner for his illegal manure levels at both Veblen dairies. However, it took citizen action to prod Pierre to do its job:

Big Stone Lake Association, a citizens' group with Minnesota and South Dakota members, complained to South Dakota regulators last July about ponds brimming with waste at the Veblen dairies, and submitted aerial photos showing hay bales stacked along the rims to keep liquid waste from lapping over.

...The company has been pumping manure out of the ponds and spreading it on nearby farm fields in recent weeks, but the citizens' group said the ground is too wet to absorb the wastes and manure is running into streams.

Steve Berkner, president of the Big Stone Lake Association, said he and Big Stone County Commissioner Roger Sandberg flew over the area on Nov. 9. They observed a chocolate-brown plume of pollution swirling into Big Stone Lake from the Little Minnesota River, and traced the pollution north for about 45 miles, up the meandering river and one of its tributaries to the dairies.

"The water the whole way up there was brown, and we saw lots of foam on the creek when it was going around rocks," said Berkner [Tom Meersman, "SD Dairy Producer Cited for Pollution Violations," Minneapolis Star Tribune, 2009.11.18].

Meersman follows up on a Joe O'Sullivan Watertown Public Opinion article from Oct 31-Nov 1 (updated online Nov. 3, available to online subscribers). O'Sullivan and Meersman both note that the state has not confirmed any manure runoff, and both run Millner's usual assertions that he's not to blame for any problems. Millner blames wet weather last year and this year that hasn't allowed him to empty his lagoons as quickly as he'd like. Of course, he never mentions the possibility that, to obey the law, he might have reduce his manure output and stop bringing new cattle into the Veblen facilities. (Meersman mentions that Millner "removed all 1,500 cows from Excel Dairy last winter, and moved them to the company's four other dairies"—I wonder how many he moved into his evidently maxed-out Veblen dairies?)

In 2007, the state of Minnesota fined Millner's company $17,400 for dumping too much manure on neighboring fields and other waste-handling violations at its New Horizon Dairy near Hoffman, MN. In 2008, Millner's Excel Dairy near Thief River Falls, MN, stunk neighbors out of their homes. This year the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency shut down Excel Dairy, then issued a one-year permit with strict conditions for Millner to clean the place up. Millner has flouted those conditions and continued to violate state and federal clean air standards.

In other words, Millner has repeatedly conducted business in such a way as to poison the environment around his industrial operations. He won't obey legal orders or even contracts with suppliers.

Now I suspect that defenders of the ag-industrial complex will say I'm just an enemy of agriculture and that I'm "scared of family farmers telling their story." Nothing could be farther from the truth. I share a desire to protect family farms and see independent agriculture remain a strong part of South Dakota's economy. But as Jay Gilbertson, East Dakota Water Development District director, tells Meersman, Millner's factory feedlot "is not a mom-and-pop operation.... This is an industrial milk production facility and needs to be treated as such. This is no one's definition of a family farm."

Veblen East and Veblen West are environmental hazards, operated by a man with a history of breaking the law, breaking contracts, and showing no regard for the well-being of the land or his neighbors. South Dakota has waited far too long to take action against Millner and his bad business practices.

Despairing Resident Turns Big Stone Lake Pollution into Art

Some lemons just don't make lemonade... but I can appreciate the effort "mbt" from Ortonville is making to publicize the algae pollution on Big Stone Lake. "mbt" has two photoblogs: Lottapolluta and PollutionSolutionAnybody.

LottaPolluta is the more artistic protest against the gruesome green, with some color effects applied to the photos.

mbt, Where Have All the Snails Gone? LottaPolluta, 2009.08.11

PSA is the raw footage, straight photos of the scummy, smelly algae that has prevented mbt's family from using the lake in front of their house for three straight summers.

mbt, Crayfish Crawling, PollutionSolutionAnybody, 2009.08.11

Yes, that green is so thick you can walk on it... well, if you're a crawdad.

mbt's profile offers this raison d'être:

This blog is the result of smelling stench 24/7 for 4 weeks now due to the prevailing winds. I've made many calls, emails, and yes, this is a shallow lake, but to suggest any of this is natural is like saying cigarettes don't cause cancer. Maybe these photos can be my voice. If we admit there's a problem, then we can fix it.

Algae is a natural organism in prairie lakes, but we can fix it. Remember, it grows faster when run-off carries the nutrients algae thrive on—especially nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer—into the lake. We can control those nutrients through regulations on fertilizer use and a number of other practical actions:

Algae blooms and their associated problems are usually the result of excess nutrients in the water. Therefore, the primary strategy for preventing algae problems is to control the sources of nutrients washing into the lake. Using no-phosphorus fertilizers, maintaining septic systems regularly, diverting roof and driveway runoff into grassy areas rather than directly to the lake, disposing of pet wastes in the garbage, and planting a buffer of native plants next to the lake shore are the best actions to help prevent nutrients from reaching the water [Snohomish County Public Works: Surface Water Management Division].

Of course, lake residents can't solve the problem themselves; they need the help of folks all along the watershed upstream.

----------------
And I wonder: even if we could filter all the fertilizer out of Big Stone Lake, how much pollutant might still be rolling east from Rick Millner's giant foreign-funded cow poop lagoons up by Veblen? Let's hope Millner hasn't been so absorbed in resisting the legal orders of the state of Minnesota that he's forgotten to maintain proper environmental practices back here in South Dakota.