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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Environment - "Millions of gallons of hog manure spilled: State officials believe the discharge might have been deliberate"

Updating yesterday's ILB entry, headed "Who cleans up if a hog farm goes bankrupt?", it appears things have gone from bad to worse. Today Seth Slaubaugh reports in the Muncie Star-Press:

EATON -- State officials are investigating the possibly intentional release of an estimated 4 million to 5 million gallons of manure from the lagoon of the abandoned Muncie Sow Unit hog farm over the weekend.

The lagoon's dike appeared "to have a notch in it," said Amy Hartsock, a spokeswoman for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

"Somebody took a trackhoe and dug down into it (the dike) and dumped all the waste manure into the ditch, and it ran to the river," said Kenny Owens, a retiree who owns farm ground and lives nearby.

After IDEM staff responded to the leak, the dike was repaired late Sunday afternoon.

"If it was a deliberate act, we would certainly consider a criminal investigation, but we can't confirm that at this time," Hartsock said. "We are still trying to make a determination of what took place."

The environmental impacts of the discharge also are being assessed, she said.

"We continue to assess the impacts downstream on (a ditch) and the Mississinewa River," Hartsock said. "There were observations of dead fish."

However, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources had not yet provided IDEM the extent of the fish kill.

"Our law enforcement division is looking into that incident, but at this point we don't have any numbers," DNR spokesman Phil Bloom said.

The manure release appeared to reach as far as Mississinewa River, Hartsock said.

Witnesses said the excavator that apparently was used to create the hole in the dike was still on the scene when state responders arrived Sunday. The excavator has been used to demolish barns at the defunct hog farm.

The story also notes:
John and Becky Moriarity, a Gas City couple who bought the abandoned farm last year, have an unlisted telephone number.

On Saturday, a day before the dike was opened, The Star Press reported that IDEM was planning to remove 4.5 million gallons of manure from the 12-million gallon lagoon because it was too full. The agency is also emptying manure from pits below barns.

IDEM is paying a contractor 9 cents a gallon to dispose of the manure at an Indianapolis wastewater treatment facility because no local facilities would accept it.

It would be cheaper for IDEM -- only 2 cents a gallon -- to land apply the manure as fertilizer to local farm fields. However, a soggy spring has made it difficult for producers to get their land applications done.

"IDEM will continue to bring the manure to Indianapolis until the ground is dry enough to allow land application," IDEM spokesman Barry Sneed said last week.

If 4.5 million gallons of manure would have been disposed of in Indianapolis, it would have cost IDEM $405,000. The agency said it planned to recover the cost of removing the manure from the Moriaraitys.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 12, 2009 08:24 AM
Posted to Environment