HUNTINGTON, Ind. — A dairy farm with a history of manure releases that threatened a nearby reservoir will be sold to an Ohio-based company as part of an order barring the farm’s current owner from operating livestock farms in Indiana through 2048.
The agreement resolves several legal proceedings that had been pending against DeGroot Dairy and its owner, Johannes DeGroot, because of several manure discharges that had spilled into tributaries of northeastern Indiana’s Salamonie Reservoir.
Under the agreed order recently issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, DeGroot will sell his dairy farm to Vreba-Hoff Dairy Development LLC, which takes immediate responsibility for its daily operations.
Don Lindsey, a neighbor and longtime opponent of the dairy, called DeGroot “not a trustworthy farmer.” He said he’s unhappy with the overall agreement because the Wauseon, Ohio-based 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.”
Barry Sneed, an IDEM spokesman, said the application for the farm’s expansion 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 improvements planned for the farm, including a new anaerobic manure treatment process.
“We are trying to calm the concerns of the locals and put the farm under better management,” she said.
Conway said Vreba-Hoff will operate the farm and eventually own it, although the transfer has not been fully executed.
In the past decade, Vreba-Hoff has helped nearly 50 Dutch families set up dairy farms in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.
But the company has had regulatory skirmishes in other states because of an overpowering stench and pollution from its concentrated animal feeding operations. Those farms generally hold thousands of cows and produce hundreds of thousands of gallons of manure each day.
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 onsite waste treatment facility.
Last year, the agency 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 Sneed said Vreba-Hoff, which owns two facilities in the state and is associated with 24 others, is in good standing in Indiana.
“We haven’t had problems with the new owner, and the new owner will fix problems that are there,” he said.
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