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INDIANAPOLIS – 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.
The agreement resolves several pending legal proceedings involving the dairy. IDEM took legal action against the operation last year to protect state waters.
“All Indiana livestock operations must meet their environmental responsibilities or face serious consequences,” said Thomas W. Easterly, IDEM commissioner. “We have utilized the courts and worked effectively with all parties, including Johannes DeGroot, area residents and new operators for the facility, to ensure it is managed in a way that protects area streams and the Salamonie Reservoir.”
A Huntington County judge ruled last June that DeGroot Dairy, 8378 W. County Road 200 S., could no longer apply manure onto fields in the area.
The dairy was required to either pump and haul the manure to an appropriate waste treatment facility or hire a third-party “custom manure applicator” to manage the manure generated at the farm.
The purpose of the injunction was to prevent the farm from discharging manure or contaminants into the tributaries of nearby Salamonie Reservoir. Last April, manure and elevated levels of ammonia nitrogen were found in a creek near the dairy.
“I think it’s a good thing,” said neighbor Don Lindsey, who has opposed the dairy for years. “(DeGroot) proved that he was not a trustworthy farmer to be able to farm in Indiana under Indiana guidelines. That’s a big step.”
But Lindsey thinks the new situation might be worse.
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.
“IDEM has been a real disappointment for us. We thought they were here to help us as citizens,” he said. “Why would they allow an increase in the herd size when they could not maintain the facility at the size that it is now? It just makes no common sense at all.”
Sneed said the application is under technical review and there will be an opportunity for the public to comment in coming weeks.
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.
nkelly@jg.net
