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| polluted streams | brownfields | manure on snow | drainage tile discharges |
CAFO-polluted streams
-- all photos taken near Hudson, Michigan
We've seen CAFO brown water, white water, green water, black water in our streams.
Downstream from Bruinsma CAFO, and close-up, DEQ confirmed illegal discharge, Sept. 2000
Pollutants in liquid manure from CAFOs can include ammonia, nitrates, phosphorus, causing algal blooms, fish kills; antibiotics, hormones, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, fecal coliform and E. coli bacteria, which can contaminate drinking water supplies and pose serious risk to human health.
Water monitoring of streams near CAFOs shows
frequent spikes in E. coli bacteria, as high as 297,000/100
ml (297 times the level Michigan allows for partial body contact).
The 10 CAFOs in our area have illegally discharged manure, silage leachate
(chopped feed, high in moisture, acidic, lowers Dissolved Oxygen in streams),
milk and milkhouse wastes. These pollutants have contaminated stretches
of three watersheds -- the Bean/Tiffin/Maumee watershed,
which supplies drinking water for Archbold, OH, and serves as a recharge
area for groundwater wells in Hudson and Morenci, MI, Bryan, OH, and other
communties; the River Raisin watershed, which supplies
drinking water for Adrian, Blissfield, and other Michigan communities;
and the St. Joseph River watershed.
(For more on our watersheds, go
to Bean/Tiffin Watershed Coalition,
and Friends of the St. Joe River Association.)
Downstream from CAFOs: (left) Vreba-Hoff II milkhouse waste discharge,
(DEQ confirmed) November 2002;
(right) dead snails in wetland, Dillon Hwy
(left) Allgal scum in South Medina Drain; (right) milky gray plume in Toad Creek at Mulberry Rd--site with E. coli count of 297,000/100ml, Nov. 11, 2002