Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan (ECCSCM) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organized to educate the public on the health risks and the environmental damage Confined Animal Feeding Operations have brought to our community and its watersheds. We developed this website to provide documentation on the pollution here and to promote Sustainable Alternatives (buy local food & pasture-based meat).

As family farmers and neighbors, we are concerned about Lake Erie, our drinking water, and the massive risk of liquid manure systems, liquid manure on tile-drained fields. Liquid manure, like rain, can drain to field tiles, which drain to streams. All streams here flow to Lake Erie. Contaminated flow that reaches a stream is a discharge. Discharges that violate Michigan's water quality standards are illegal. 12 CAFOs in our area have discharged illegally or violated their CAFO Permits. Since 2000, there have been 4,699 violations and discharges in our area, many of them multiple-day violations (see complete violations list).

RECENT NEWS - June 2015 to present: (For previous months and years, see News Archives)

See the bare-bottomed, bald-faced facts – CAFO waste vs. Human waste – in the hilarious Newsweek cartoon accompanying today's article, Two Numbers: Animal Manure a Growing Headache in America. The article points out that CAFOs produce "335 million tons of manure annually in the U.S.," whereas American humans produce only 7 million tons. However, "unlike human waste, animal manure isn’t processed at all... and that’s causing human health problems."

Stink-in on the Capitol Steps! (of Wisconsin) - Something stinks in Wisconsin, and it's CAFOs. Fighting against water contamination, loss of drinking water, and stench. Hear some voices in the national push to save our water, our air.

Dec 7 - The infamous "milk tile" - this field tile drains into a ditch along US-127 which drains to Fisher Lake (Bean/Tiffin Watershed). This tile has a history. In 2002, the tile flowed white. DEQ cited the dairy CAFO uplslope on US-127, then Vreba-Hoff 2 (now Milk Source's Hudson Dairy CAFO), for an illegal discharge of milk house flush water (see Violations list, November 2002). Recently, when other tiles were not flowing, or flowing clear water, this tile often looked foul, especially this year: in April, with algae hanging at the lip; in November, with foam; and in December, just yesterday, more weird, lumpish foam.

November, 2002 - milk tile ........ April 22, 2015 - algae, bubbles .... Nov 11, 2015 - bubbly foam ...... Dec 6, 2015 - more foam, lumpy...

NEW CAFO MAP - Follow the Manure! – this new map IDs all CAFOs in the Western Lake Erie Watershed – with animal & manure numbers, violations & subsidies. Produced by the Less=More Coalition, see their website for more maps, additional data, the documentary video, "Crisis: Factory Farms and Lake Erie Algae," and the complete Less=More report: Follow the Manure: Factory Farms and the Lake Erie Algae Crisis. The report includes details on Lenawee and Hillsdale CAFOs in particular: "Lenawee County, Mich., is remarkable within the WLEW [Western Lake Erie Watershed] both for the amount of manure that it produces and for the excessive number of permit violations."

NEW VIOLATIONS: 2 CAFOs - Milk Source's Medina Dairy and Hartland Farms – cited by DEQ for violation of their CAFO Permits.
(See Violations List for links to DEQ letters)
Medina Dairy - in an inspection etter sent Nov 13, 2015, DEQ cited Medina Dairy for applying CAFO waste to a field that was not public noticed prior to CAFO waste application. "This is a violation of the facility's permit," which requires that new fields be assessed for appropriate CAFO waste application before any waste is applied.
Hartland Farms – in a Violation Notice sent Nov 6, 2015, DEQ cited Hartland Farms for applying manure to "multiple fields" without incorporation within 24 hrs, a violation of its CAFO Permit.

Nov 18 - In the rain - wind and rain are rolling through today, but tankers from Milk Source's Medina Dairy CAFO are hauling liquid manure to a draglining operation on Maple Grove Ave, at the north edge of the City of Hudson. (more photos on Stench Alerts)

11-18-15 - Medina Dairy CAFO dumpbox and tankers at draglining operation on Maple Grove Ave, Hudson.

Nov 13 - New Flevo Dairy is spreading CAFO solids in the rain along Burton Rd, a practice prohibited by the CAFO Permit.

11-13-15 - New Flevo Dairy is spreading solids in the rain, Burton Rd west of US-223.

Nov. 12 - CAFO Permits prohibit waste application in the rain - Milk Source's Hudson Dairy is draglining in the rain, tankers running into the evening, east of Kelso Rd, the dragline running from the dumpbox on M-34, west of the City of Hudson. See also Stench Alerts.

11-12-15 - Hudson Dairy manure tankers hauling to the dumpbox along M-34, 6:34 p.m., in the rain.


11-12-15 - Hudson Dairy draglining in the rain, near Kelso Rd, through dragline hose from dumpbox on M-34.

Nov 10 - 2015 Lake Erie algae bloom "the worst this century" - Analysis of the 2015 season by NOAA and the Great Lakes Research Lab found it worse in total biomass than 2011, the previous worst. "Fortunately," they note, "the bloom moved to the central basin rather than along the shore." Will we luck out every year, if worst follows worst? Manure and nutrients in CAFO waste applied now (see today's Stench Alerts) - on bare fields, no growing crop - can easily run off fields or drain through tiles, a huge risk for next year's toxic algae season.

11-9-15 - Medina Dairy CAFO application, damp rutted field, NO CROP NOW, NO CROP TO COME for months.

Outrageous stench widespread around the City of Adrian and various field locations. The Adrian Daily Telegram asked on Facebook yesterday, "We're looking for some help with a story. We've received some reports of a strong, manure/sewage odor around the north side of Adrian and northwest and west of town, especially in the morning for the past few days."
The Telegram got 400+ replies, including:
"... on Valley Rd just east of Bent Oak. They put it on the fields all around us. It's disgusting it should be banned."
"I thought it smelled like someone dropped a bomb of aspagras pee on adrian. it was gag worthy just being outside."
"We thought it was the dark piles of dirt (manure/waste?) in the farm fields on the north side of Valley Rd."
"...all of us would like to know EXACTLY what this stuff is. it smells so bad. and the smell lingers for a long time. Its a cross smell between something dead and brussel sprouts. omg you can hardly breathe."
See Stench Alerts for more details from Adrian today, Nov 5, including photos to ECCSCM.

"WORST MANURE SMELL EVER. LIKE ROTTED BODY PARTS" - Horrendous stench at the Hudson Dairy dump box on Waldron Rd, across from a school, and very close to neighbors and their well in the front yard. Reports say the stench is "brutal, disgusting," "like rotted body parts." Draglining began this morning on the large field at Waldron Rd and M-34. Neighbors are suffering. And fed up.

11-2-15 - Three tankers, one waiting in the road, are hauling Hudson Dairy CAFO waste to a dumpbox at intersection of Waldron Rd and M-34.

11-2-15 - Tanker dumping into dumpbox, some liquid spilled on the ground ("worst manure smell ever," "disgusting").

11-2-15 - Hudson Dairy draglining field black at Waldron and M-34, low area and upslope.

November 1 - a short lull in manure application, following rain last night. But with a dry week ahead - watch out! and let us know if you see haulers on the road.
NOTE: Dragline hose ACROSS Seeley Drain, inlet to Posey Lake - Medina Dairy CAFO was draglining fields last week along Plank Rd, next to houses on Posey Lake. Today the dragline hose is stretched OVER Seeley Drain, a major inlet to Posey Lake (see photos below). This is one of the highest risk practices. In 2012, Milk Source's predecessor Southern Michigan Dairies also ran a dragline across a stream, until ECCSCM raised the alert and SMD decided that with the risk to waterbodies, there was "no excuse" for this practice. See July 5, 2012 and May 1, 2012 photos and more details.

11-1-15 - Medina Dairy dragline set-up on Plank Rd; no draglining today after rain last night. But ready to go. See Seeley Drain photos below.



11-1-15 - Medina Dairy dragline across Seeley Dr, Plank Rd, close up above right.

October means weeks of heavy fall manure application, with NO CROP. And no crop to come for months. Good reason to call this what it is: waste disposal, not fertilizer. Just in the last few days, before ECCSCM's Water Monitoring (Oct 27), and before predicted heavy rainfall - a forecast prohibiting CAFO waste application - tankers and haulers had been applying at multiple locations. See more details.

Bulletin! OFF THE CHARTS - E. coli at Site #36, Shierson Drain: 150,000/100mL - ECCSCM Water Monitoring E. coli results from Oct 27 are just back from the DEQ lab, showing an E. coli count of 150,000/100mL at Shierson Drain on Ridgeville Rd, Morenci. Legend CAFO fields and one State Line CAFO field lie immediately upstream. Ammonia levels at Shierson Dr were 6 ppm (see photo below), the highest we've seen on Hach test strips at any site. Ever.
-Michigan's water standard for E. coli is 1,000/100mL, for partial body contact.
-Ammonia in streams should range between 0.01-0.10ppm, and results above 0.10 ppm are "of concern."

Shierson Drain is a tributary of Silver Creek which flows into Bean Creek below Morenci, and on to the Maumee River and Lake Erie.

Two other sites also tested at extremely high levels of E.coli:
91,000/100mL at Deline Cr Extension on Tomer Rd, a site draining Hoffland CAFO fields
5,500/100mL at Lime Cr tributary on Ingall Hwy near Packard Rd, a site draining Medina CAFO fields

Lime Cr tributary on Ingall Hwy, with E. coli count at 5,500/100ml, also had extremely low DO of .23 mg/L. Michigan water standard for Dissolved Oxygen is 5 mg/L or higher, and 3 mg/L is fish-kill level.


Also on 10-27-15, Rice Lake Dr at Hoffland CAFO, site of fish kill in August - degraded as ever.

Also noted on 10-27, South Medina Dr is chopped, trees removed. Milk Source's Medina CAFO is 1 mi upstream, where this tributary of Bean Cr originates.
Dissolved Oxygen level of 1.96 mg/L at this site on 10-27-15.

"Stop stalling on Lake Erie" - Toledo Blade endorses Lake Erie impaired status - In an editorial Oct 27, the Toledo Blade calls for "a formal declaration by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the western Lake Erie watershed is 'impaired.' Under the federal Clean Water Act, that definition would permit tougher regulation of the sources of pollution — especially runoff of excess manure and fertilizer from farm operations — that promote the growth of harmful algae blooms in the lake."

Oct 24 - Toledo Blade article today concludes that mayoral candidate Mike Ferner's comment that "megafarms produce the waste equivalent of Chicago and Los Angeles combined," could well be true. Blade writer Tom Henry reports that "... Chicago and Los Angeles produce anywhere from 3 million to 17 million pounds of feces a day, depending how large of a geographical area and which formula is used." He also notes: "Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan — the region’s leader for grassroots-level manure research — has created a database of government records showing the River Raisin, St. Joseph, and Maumee River watersheds had 10.7 million animals producing 5.1 billion pounds of manure during 2014, which comes to nearly 14 million pounds a day."

Oct 20 - Rotary Club taking aim at algae blooms in Lake Erie - Andy Stuart, Pres of Toledo Rotary Club says, “Not just our physical health is threatened, but our entire economic health is threatened, and if we don’t do something about it now it could become overwhelming ... Stuart acknowledges that some people may see this as a strange issue for a Rotary Club to tackle, but explains that the 34,000 clubs worldwide have a long history of taking on the world’s most daunting problems."

Oct 19 - The Politics of Algae: Great Lakes Week - Excellent short PBS video (Ch. 56 Detroit) on CAFOs/animal manure and Lake Erie. Shows ECCSCM water monitoring. Lake Erie Waterkeeper Sandy Bihn’s comparison to the previous Lake Erie fix really hits the mark, both on what it will take, and how it’s possible.

from "The Politics of Algae" – ECCSCM water monitoring, and clip from ECCSCM video of liquid manure application in winter 2014, no crop.

Oct 9 - Dangerous air near Hartland Farms CAFO waste application - high Hydrogen Sulfide emissions. On Oct 9, Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) exposure reached 0.4ppm (parts per million) near Hartland Farms CAFO waste application on Beecher Rd. Hydrogen Sulfide is the "rotten egg" part of the CAFO waste stink. Several states - NY, KY, New Mexico - have an air standard for H2S, a 1-hr limit of 0.01ppm. Michigan has no air standard for H2S. Hydrogen sulfide can cause headaches, breathing problems, and with severe or chronic exposure can cause neurological damage – it's a brain poison. Health Dept and other agencies were notified.

10-8-15 - Drager meter with oxygen reading (20.5%) and Hydrogen Sulfide reading of 0.4ppm.

Oct 7 - Massive manure applications from Milk Source's CAFOs continue. And today, Milk Source's PR person Bill Harke finally admitted in an online article that they're "working through issues" with the new livestock waste system they'd promised would treat manure so completely you could drink it! No sign of drinking water on Milk Source fields here. Instead, they're hauling and trucking and spraying and spreading - stinking untreated CAFO waste. Yesterday tankers were rolling morning to night.
See more photos of Milk Source CAFO applications and other CAFO messes from yesterday here.

10-6-15 - Milk Source's Medina Dairy spreading thick wet stinking untreated (not "drinking water") CAFO goo.

The EVIL TWIN of Lake Erie restoration projects Tree-removal, buffer-removal, scraping, burning at field edges and streams - why? for an extra acre of corn? Just when so much Lake Erie funding, our tax money, is going to farmers for buffer-planting, green cover crops, erosion prevention? (see larger images and details)

Oct 1 - "Disgusting" - For miles around, another day of black manure fields, polluted air, polluted water, disgusting CAFO waste applications. See more details and photos of 6 CAFOs spraying, aerosolizing, dumping animal sewage on fields.

10-1-15 - New Flevo CAFO's stockpiling; Hoffland CAFO's Rice Lake Drain; Hartland CAFO spewing; Medina Dairy CAFO's black slurry waste field.

Sept 23 - "Unbearable...for several days" - And today, a beautiful first day of fall, CAFOs are fouling the air in at least 5 townships (Adrian, Rollin, Hudson, Dover, Medina). See more photos and details of CAFO waste being sprayed, spread, hauled, and draglined around us today.

Sept 14 - More toxins lead to more toxic chemicals in Monroe Co, MI drinking water - Through most of the summer we've heard news reports of the toxin microcystin in Toledo's water intake in Lake Erie – but not in the drinking water. Now a Toledo Blade article notes that the “heavy reliance on chlorine” in water treatment may be causing health threats: "Customers of the South County Water System, which distributes Toledo tap water to 30,000 Monroe County [MI] residents, were notified by that utility earlier this month that their water earlier this year had an elevated level of cancer-causing trihalomethanes," which is a symptom of heavy reliance on chlorine. In July, the Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune reported that "Just over $5 million has been spent within the past year at Toledo’s drinking water plant that will allow it to quadruple the amount of chemicals needed to get rid of the toxins in the water as it is pumped from the lake."

Millions dying around the world due to air pollution - CBS News - "Agriculture is the next biggest contributor to premature deaths from air pollution. Ammonia from livestock and fertilizer cause the formation of ammonium nitrate and sulfate particles, which contribute to air pollution. Agriculture is the leading source of premature deaths from air pollution in the eastern United States, Russia, Turkey, Korea and Japan and Europe, according to the study."

Aug 12 – Foul, intolerable day all around – (see more details and more photos)
•State Line CAFO is at it AGAIN in Morenci - manure tankers hauling through downtown. Think how many hog pits - how deep the waste - to fill all those tankers for all these days. Think how much untreated waste is going on fields within a mile or so of town.
•Dead fish in Rice Lake Drain. Dissolved oxygen levels at several CAFO locations are way below fish-kill levels. (more photos). DEQ, DNR have not investigated, although the EPA details the River and Stream Impacts of animal waste: "Manure, and wastewater containing manure, can severely harm river and stream ecosystems. Manure contains ammonia which is highly toxic to fish at low levels. Increased amounts of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus...can cause algal blooms which block waterways and deplete oxygen as they decompose. This can kill fish and other aquatic organisms, devastating the entire aquatic food chain."

8-12-15 – one of several dead fish in Rice Lake Drain, just downstream from Hoffland CAFO facility and fields

NOAA's Harmful Algae Bloom Bulletin for Aug 10 describes a cyanobacteria bloom across a large part of Lake Erie's western basin. A Recreational Public Health Advisory has been posted for Maumee Bay State Park by Ohio EPA, due to high levels of algal toxin detected at the beach. Swimming and wading are not recommended for the very old, the very young or those in ill health. A Contamination Advisory for E. coli continues at Maumee Bay State Park. Children, the elderly and those in ill health or weakened immune systems are advised not to swim.

Quite a weekend - Aug 7-9 - "Celebrate Hudson" Festival, with US-127 Yard Sales and Neighborhood Garage Sales everywhere. Also, just down the road on M-34, Clayton Summerfest, on Saturday Aug 8 with Hartland Farms listed as "Proud Sponsor" (see Hartland Farms "Dairy-air" contribution below).
Weather Forecast - great summer weather!
Manure Forecast - it's in the air, & it stinks!
Here's why...

Aug 6 - Lake Erie Harmful Algae Bloom Bulletin for Aug 6 - The microcystis cyanobacteria bloom has intensified along Michigan's shoreline and the western basin, where "extensive severe scum was present." In the satellite image from Aug 5, all areas in dark red have scum. "Microcystin is present in this bloom, with toxin levels especially high in scums."

Cyanobacterial Index from NASA Modus-Terra data collected Aug 5, 2015

Aug 5 - Foul far and wide - "extreme stench" reported from liquid manure applications in multiple locations, a nightmare this beautiful summer evening. Emissions are carrying for miles in light and variable winds. See details on Hartland Farms CAFO, New Flevo Dairy CAFO, Hoffland Farms CAFO, and Medina Dairy CAFO.

8-5-15 - "Extreme stench" from this Hartland liquid manure application on slope along Cadmus Rd, east of Hughes.

New Flevo Dairy black surface application, up and down hills, on Forrister Rd east of Skinner Hwy.

July 29 - Still hot, in the 90s, & humid, bad air at manure applications: Medina Dairy still draglining along Ridgeville Rd; and Milk Source's Hudson Dairy spreading solids in Ransom Twp, Hillsdale Co, with dust and particulates rising, drifting in the heat. See details.

July 28 - Industrial-strength manure dumping - with fields drying and wheat cut, CAFOs are draglining, spreading and spraying manure. Bad days for neighbors. For more details and photos, see Stench Alerts.

7-28-15 - Milk Source's Medina Dairy dumpbox on Ridgeville - three tankers pumping liquid manure, dragline pump & hose in foreground.

July 27 - Microcystin detected in Toledo water intake crib - The City of Toledo announces: "We’ve changed our water quality dashboard to reflect the current status of Toledo’s water, which is now 'Watch.' Our new water protocols are working as we intended to provide the public with information about the changes in quality of water as well as early warning of harmful algal blooms. Microcystin has been detected in the intake crib 3 miles out in Lake Erie, but not in drinking water." For current data from the crib intake, see Great Lakes Buoys - Toledo crib intake sonde data. (To see data for the week, click on the graph icon to the left of blue-green algae data.)

City of Toledo Water Quality Dashboard, July 27, 2015

"Large pastoral farms" instead of CAFOs - YES! - Project Animal Farm author Sonia Faruqi in an interview describes large pastoral farms as "the solution to most of the humane and sustainability problems we are seeing" in industrial farms. She says that systemic reform in animal agriculture is essential, to end the "horrific abuses" of industrial-size operations. She describes how large pastoral farms can thrive with "economies of scale and the low costs that producers and consumers want."

South Medina Drain looks terrible today, July 22 - This stream, listed as "impaired," originates on Milk Source's Medina Dairy CAFO property and drains only Medina Dairy production area and fields. Water monitoring Hach test strip results today showed extremely high Nitrate (10mg/L); Phosphate (30mg/L); and Ammonia (0.25mg/L - of concern, above 0.10mg/L).

7-22-15 - South Medina Drain at Ingall Hwy, "impaired" tributary of Bean Cr, Lake Erie Watershed; bottle showing red color in South Medina Dr water.

"It’s the manure, stupid" - article in today' s Toledo Blade (July 17) on the major problem in Lake Erie's current degradation. "The biggest, and most immediate, thing we can do to save the lake is reduce the manure runoff into it," says Sandy Bihn, head of Lake Erie Waterkeeper. "That will ultimately mean more expensive beef and pork, or eating less of each. But both outcomes seem a small price for saving a great lake." The article notes that Gov John Kasich of Ohio (like Gov Rick Snyder of MI?) is a genuine champion of Lake Erie, but he "may have to face down the meat industry, which, it has been said, is as powerful as the cigarette industry in America. Eventually, the farm animal waste will have to be treated, just as human waste is."

Bulletin: Latest (July 9) Harmful Algae Bloom risk for western Lake Erie - "among the most severe in recent years." After heavy rains in June, and phosphorus surging off fields, NOAA and its research partners expect a severity index as high as 9.5 (out of 10, "which corresponds to the 2011 bloom, the worst ever observed"). See also Toledo Blade article today.

Court upholds EPA Chesapeake Bay clean-up plan - Victory for clean water! - In response to a suit filed by Farm Bureau and other ag interests, an Appeals Court ruled July 6 that "EPA’s regulation of nutrient pollution in the Chesapeake Bay under the Clean Water Act was valid, and that the Farm Bureau’s arguments against the plan were 'unpersuasive'." Because of serious nutrient pollution, as in Lake Erie, the 6 Chesapeake Bay states established a Clean Water Blueprint, with Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for how much nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment can enter the bay each year.

"One more capitulation to the powerful agricultural lobby" - Read Gary Wilson's report on the recent "Leadership Summit" in Quebec on protecting Lake Erie (or listen to interview on WKAR). "For all the talk about valuing the Great Lakes and blue economies, this was a shabby performance in Quebec by an absent and disinterested group of governors. The status quo which hasn’t worked trumped bold action to improve drinking water quality."

New report on "America's Industrial Dairy Wasteland" - could be a Michigan CAFO report, but no, this report, from Socially Responsible Agricultural Project (SRAP), focuses on Wisconsin's CAFO pollution and the public health crisis in CAFO communities and watersheds. (See Full report, 140 p., 41MB) The report,"The Rap Sheets: Industrial Dairies of Kewaunee County, Wisconsin," documents years of pollution, complaints and agency response to 16 dairy CAFOs . “We should not mince words about this...What we’re talking about are Third World conditions in America’s heartland,” SRAP’s Scott Dye said. Drawing on agency documents, the report indicts Wisconsin's DNR (like our DEQ, charged with overseeing CAFOs) for regulatory failure, concluding its "hand-off approach...has proven to be an abject failure. The agency’s 'all carrots, and no stick' oversight has left county residents with contaminated groundwater, a polluted countryside and a public health emergency."

Pope Francis in "On Care for Our Common Home," speaks forcefully on the enviroment, on climate change, on pollution including "agrotoxins," and on the moral imperative of protecting nature –"our common home." "Everything is connected," he writes. Our world is both enviromental and social, an "integral ecology." Read the full Encyclical Letter. Excerpts below are pertinent to sustainablility, agriculture, and the economic and political actions of authorities, agencies:
• "Technology, which linked to business interests, is presented as the only way of solving these [environmental] problems, in fact proves incapable of seeing the mysterious network of relations between things and so sometimes solves one problem only to create others...the earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth."
• "There are too many special interests, and economic interests easily end up trumping the common good and manipulating information so that their own plans will not be affected...Consequently the most one can expect is superficial rhetoric, sporadic acts of philanthropy and perfunctory expressions of concern for the environment, whereas any genuine attempt by groups within society to introduce change is viewed as a nuisance based on romantic illusions or an obstacle to be circumvented."
• "Economies of scale, especially in the agricultural sector, end up forcing smallholders to sell their land or to abandon their traditional crops. Their attempts to move to other, more diversified, means of production prove fruitless...because the infrastructure for sales and transport is geared to larger businesses. Civil authorities have the right and duty to adopt clear and firm measures in support of small producers and differentiated production."
• "Environmental impact assessment should not come after the drawing up of a business proposition...It should be part of the process from the beginning...The local population should have a special place at the table; they are concerned about their own future and that of their children, and can consider goals transcending immediate economic interest."

Lake Erie microcystis reported – too soon. The Toledo Blade reports that the early arrival of algae puts scientists on alert, following the first report of microcystis this week in Lake Erie. Blooms usually don't appear until August. The most recent (June 15) Harmful Algal Bloom Projection, from Heidelberg Univ and NOAA, notes that, "Earlier this spring had been relatively dry, resulting in less discharge and lower phosphorus loads into the western basin. Recent thunderstorms increased the loads, therefore increasing the potential bloom severity."

What causes Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in Lake Erie? See brief but detailed account by scientists with USDA Agricultural Research Service on the role of "larger farms," "manure," "tile drainage," as well as climate change, commodity prices, ethanol production, etc. in Journal of Soil and Water Conservation (April 2015).

Voices throughout the region unite on changes in agricultural practices to protect Lake Erie: The just-released Interim Joint Action Plan for Lake Erie lists a ban on manure and fertilizer on snow-covered and frozen ground as crucial. A June 5 Toledo Blade editorial on the new federal water rule supporting the Clean Water Act details the importance of protecting small tributaries and wetlands that feed drinking water sources (like Lake Erie). As Todd Ambs, the director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, told the Blade, “It’s not called the Partially Clean Water Act.”

June 7 - Dead cow at Bakerlads CAFO "Center for Excellence," lying at the northeast corner of the facility east of Morey Hwy (M 156), within 100 feet of the South Branch of the River Raisin.

6-7-15 - dead cow lying near Morey Hwy and South Branch of the River Raisin, at Bakerlads Farm CAFO, a "Center of Excellence" in Lenawee Co.

June 3 - NEW! Updated information on Western Lake Erie Watershed CAFO manure inputs and nutrient inputs for 2015 (from CAFO annual reports in Michigan and Ohio Livestock Permitting database). Manure production in the Western Lake Erie Watershed has increased since last year by more by than 171,000,000 lbs. to a new CAFO waste total of more than 5 billion pounds. In our Michigan watershed alone, CAFOs have added 3,667 animals, with an increase of more than 13,600,000 gal of liquid CAFO waste. Current totals here, from 15 CAFOs: 45,700 animals, 187,943,633 gals. of liquid waste.

. . . (earlier Jan-May 2015 entries on News archive page). . .

Background on CAFOs here:
In recent years (1997-2012), 13 CAFOs – most of them dairies – were constructed or expanded from smaller operations in our area. Major expansions continue. Dairy CAFOs confine 700 or more cows, often several thousand cows, in warehouse-size steel barns, year-round. 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 EPA's comprehensive list of pathogens and symptoms). These pathogens can threaten human health, other livestock, aquatic life, and wildlife.

FIND THE CAFOS IN YOUR AREA - New Food & Water Watch map of CAFOs, updated to 2012 (with expansions around here continuing through 2015, not included)
Food & Water Watch points out about Michigan:
•The number of dairy cows on factory farms in Michigan with more than 500-head increased nearly six-fold in fifteen years, rising from 35,000 dairy cows in 1997 to more than 205,000 in 2012.
•In 2012, Michigan had the eighth highest number of dairy cows on factory farms in the nation, with nearly 206,000 dairy cows on factory farms with more than 500-head.
•The dairy cows on factory farms in Michigan in 2012 produce as much waste as 45 million people — more than 4 times the state population.

________________________

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