Ritchey Dairy to meet with EPA next week

By LORI COPE | East Texas Edition

August 14, 2003 -- An Aug. 21 date has been set for a "show cause" meeting between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Alan Ritchey Dairy in response to an administrative order filed against the farm in June.

The meeting will be conducted at EPA's Region 6 office in Dallas. The meeting will allow Ritchey to dispute the violations, or to indicate how he will resolve the environmental problems, according to the agency's media relations department.

An April 3 inspection found the dairy to have numerous pollutant discharge violations, according to the EPA's order. Discharges were cited to be from silage storage bunkers into Brown Creek; from the production area into Old Indian Boundary Island Bayou; and discharges into Old Indian Boundary Bayou Island due to failure of collection system.

The dairy's alleged violations have also generated a state administrative order filed by the Oklahoma Attorney General's office for the the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry's (ODAFF) water quality services division. In this state level order, the Ritchey Dairy is cited with 11 counts of violations that range from the dairy's failure to initially obtain a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) license in 1996 and a lack of carcass handling/management evidenced in the April 3 inspection.

A Nov. 4 hearing is scheduled with the Oklahoma Attorney General's office to discuss the violations. The AG's office is also seeking civil penalties against Ritchey for the violations.

The April 3 inspection was a follow-up to previous complaints against the 2,500-cow dairy. The nine-hour inspection found numerous problems, including a carcass disposal pit that was "a disaster," with "carcasses and body fluids were lying on top of the ground."

The federal order, issued in June, said the dairy should "immediately take all necessary measures to prevent any discharge of pollutants (including animal waste or industrial storm water) to waters of the U.S. from any part of the facility."

The state order cites ODAFF can assess an administrative penalty up to $10,00 per day of noncompliance, and each day a violation is committed or allowed to continue is a separate offense and fines coudl be assessed accordingly.

The Aug. 21 meeting and the Nov. 2 meeting are designed to address the methods of resolving these federal and state orders, respectively.

The Alan Ritchey Dairy, the site of the 1999 Southwest Dairy Field Day because of its state-of-the-art design, is located just north of the Red River where Fannin County, Texas, and Bryan County, Okla., meet at the river.