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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Environment - More on: Environment - "Huntington County dairy coming under new management"

Updating this ILB entry from Monday, March 24, which quoted an IDEM press release, Niki Kelly reports today in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:

There is good news and possible bad news for neighbors who have been fighting with the troubled DeGroot Dairy in rural Huntington County.

Owner Johannes DeGroot and DeGroot Dairy LLC are barred from operating animal feeding operations in Indiana through 2048 under an agreement with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

But the new operator – Ohio-based Vreba-Hoff Dairy Development LLC – has had regulatory skirmishes in other states and plan to nearly double the herd size of the Huntington farm to pay for improvements. * * *

As part of the agreement, DeGroot agrees to sell the dairy operation to Vreba-Hoff and allows Vreba-Hoff to take immediate responsibility for daily operations.

With Vreba-Hoff’s help, almost 50 Dutch families have set up dairy farms in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio over the past decade.

According to a Washington Post report from August, Vreba-Hoff and many of its dairies have clashed with state regulators and residents. People complain of an overpowering stench and environmental pollution from the dairies, which generally house several thousand cows in what are known as concentrated animal feeding operations and produce hundreds of thousands of gallons of manure each day.

The Environmental Protection Agency released a report in January 2007 that cited a former Vreba-Hoff-owned dairy near Fremont for violations of numerous environmental standards, including allowing illegal waste discharges. Vreba-Hoff sold the 39-acre, 900-cattle dairy farm to DeJong Dairy LLC, 5409 E. Ray Clark Road, in December 2004.

And the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has been in a legal tug of war with Vreba-Hoff for several years, filing a lawsuit in 2003 that resulted in a 2004 consent decree in which the company agreed to build an on-site waste treatment facility. Last year, the department asked a judge to hold the company in contempt of court for violating the decree, asserting that Vreba-Hoff was still failing to correctly dispose of manure.

But Barry Sneed, public information officer with IDEM, said Vreba-Hoff is in good standing in Indiana. It owns two facilities in the state and is associated with 24 others.

“We haven’t had problems with the new owner, and the new owner will fix problems that are there,” Sneed said. “Any time we can bring a facility into compliance and have future compliance as well, that’s kind of a win-win for us.”

IDEM is reviewing a new permit application for construction projects at the dairy as well as a request for expansion. The facility will operate under the new name Andrews Dairy LLC.

Lindsey said as an adjoining landowner he already received information that Vreba-Hoff wants to expand the herd size from 1,400 to 2,500. * * *

Vreba-Hoff spokeswoman Cecilia Conway said the additional 1,100 cows are needed to finance all the improvements that are planned, including a new anaerobic treatment process.

“We want to improve the design of the facility and incorporate some new manure-handling technology,” she said. “We are trying to calm the concerns of the locals and put the farm under better management.”

Conway said Vreba-Hoff will operate the farm and eventually own it.

For a history of Vreba-Hoff dealings with the IDEM Office of Enforcement, go to this link, type "vreba" in the company name box, and change the start date to Jan. 1, 1995.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 26, 2008 11:44 AM
Posted to Environment