In the last few years, 12 livestock factories, most of them dairies, have been built near the town of Hudson, Michigan.  Large livestock operations that confine animals year-round are called Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).

Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan (ECCSCM) developed this website to provide information on the pollution and the damage CAFOs have caused in our community and its watersheds, and to promote Sustainable Alternatives (buy local food & pasture-based meat--see sources). We support vanguard, responsible agriculture, farming that looks ahead to the next generations, preserves biodiversity, raises animals in a healthy environment, does no harm to its neighbors, enhances the natural assets of living communities, and protects our natural resources -- air, soils, groundwater, streams, and lakes.

As family farmers and neighbors, we believe agriculture must take responsibility for its actions in rural communities. CAFOs have failed us. They have damaged our farming communities, degraded our natural resources, and polluted our watersheds.

STENCH/EMISSION ALERTS!

NEW: SPRING Newsletter

MANURE EMISSIONS INCIDENT REPORT -- ONLINE FORM
ONLINE FORM: If manure emissions are making you sick, changing your daily activities, report your distress to ECCSCM on this form. We'll keep a log of health impacts from CAFO emissions and let agencies and legislators know where the health Hotspots are.

OR ORDER the print version, our MANURE EMISSIONS LOG BOOK, which you can mail back to us. Send us your name and address, and we'll mail you a copy:
ECCSCM, P.O.Box 254, Hudson, MI 49247 or contact-us@nocafos.org



BULLETINS: 

2010

July 19 - New Court Action against Vreba-Hoff - Michigan's Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) files a new Amended Complaint against Vreba-Hoff with the 30th Circuit Court citing numerous, continuing violations – liquid waste still doesn't meet treatment standards; Vreba-Hoff has not had a certified operator of its treatment system since April 2009; Vreba-Hoff continues unauthorized dumping of waste in the satellite lagoon on Packard Rd, an illegal groundwater discharge. DNRE requests the court to order "depopulation of the dairy operation" if treatment standards are not met. DNRE also asks the Court to order Vreba-Hoff to hire a certified operator for the "Earthmentor" system immediately, to enjoin Vreba-Hoff to stop hauling waste to the satellite lagoon and, as ordered previously, to close the lagoon down.
See DNRE Fact Sheet on the current state of Michigan's lawsuit against Vreba-Hoff.
See the full DNRE Amended Complaint.

Vreba-Hoff’s “satellite” lagoon on Packard Rd noted in the new Court Action – (left) March 19, not shut down, well after March 8 deadline; (middle) May 19, still there, filling up with unauthorized Vreba-Hoff dumping; (right) May 30, photo from far side, showing gap bulldozed shut and hauler dumping manure, foaming at the corner.

May 11 - after heavy rains, massive runoff from Hoffland manure application sites. Manure draglines are still in place in the fields along Tomer Rd.

May 6 – Hoffland CAFO draglining at Wheeler and Haley Rds; also applying along Tomer Road, with liquid waste ponding on already saturated ground. Draglining pumps liquid manure direct from lagoons through hoses to the field.

5-6-2010 - wheel tracks full of Hoffland liquid manure

April – Lynn Henning, ECCSCM vice-president and CAFO Water Sentinel for Sierra Club, wins the Goldman Environmental Prize for North America. The Goldman Environmental Prize, with an award of $150,000, is granted to only 6 activists world-wide. Lynn was awarded for her work to protect natural resources from CAFO pollution. She was presented the award in San Francisco on April 19 and will speak in Washington, D. C. on Earth Day weekend. See article in the Adrian Daily Telegram.

Lynn Henning, winner of the 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize for North America

Living a Nightmare: Animal Factories in Michigan
click for more information and order form

What are CAFOs?
Dairy CAFOs confine 700 or more cows, often several thousand cows, in long steel barns, year-round. CAFO cows never graze. CAFOs look like factories, and they are -- animal factories.

Untreated CAFO waste is liquified with clean groundwater -- instantly polluted -- then pumped to cesspits or holding "lagoons" until it is pumped again and injected or sprayed onto fields around Hudson (pop. 2500). Some manure makes good fertilizer. But too much manure, especially the liquid manure from CAFOs, is a major pollutant of soils and waterways. Animal manure and and animal carcasses contain many pathogens (disease-causing organisms such as Cryptosporidium, E. coli bacteria, Listeria -- see a comprehensive list of pathogens and symptoms posted by the Environmental Protection Agency.). These pathogens can threaten human health, other livestock, aquatic life, and wildlife when introduced into the environment.

When liquid manure enters streams or lakes, it is called a discharge. Discharges that violate Michigan's water quality standards are illegal.

CAFOs in this area, all of them, have discharged illegally. Since 2000, there have been 1,077 violations and discharges, many of them multiple-day violations, confirmed by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in the Hudson area (see violations list). A 100% failure rate in pollution prevention.

On the Local Pollution pages, look at what we see around here every day -- waste-polluted water, silage leachate runoff, drainage tile discharges, the destruction of vegetation along streams, violations of manure management practices. Too bad the photos aren't Scratch & Sniff!

 ECCSCM, P.O.Box 254, Hudson, MI 49247
 contact-us@nocafos.org
To become a member of ECCSCM
click here