Mega dairy under the gun for environmental noncompliances
State, federal orders placed on Alan Ritchey farm located near Red River

By LORI COPE | East Texas Edition

July 17, 2003 -- A 3,500-cow dairy in south central Oklahoma, owned by Texas-based Alan Ritchey, Inc., is under the gun for environmental violations, pointed at the operation by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry (ODAFF) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Currently under a federal order issued by the EPA in June to give specific information on discharges from the farm within the last five years, the Alan Ritchey Dairy in Yuba, Okla., also faces civil judicial action from the Oklahoma's attorney general's office for violations of the Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) regulations.

In an administrative order filed earlier this spring by the Oklahoma Attorney General's office for ODAFF's water quality services division, the Ritchey Dairy is cited with 11 counts of violations that range from the dairy's failure to initially obtain a CAFO license in 1996 to the dairy's failure to ensure animal waste and carcass handling/management evidenced in an April 3 inspection of the facilities.

Since 1996 when a state law was passed requiring CAFO's to obtain license from the state, it's been "back and forth" with applications, requests, non-responses, and denials between the dairy and the state regulatory agency, cited Susan Damron Krug, assistant attorney general on July 9.

Alan Ritchey Dairy has applied for the required CAFO license, but in the process to have it granted, the dairy has incurred numerous violations of the CAFO acts and Environmental Quality Code concerning its operation and maintenance, according to the order.

Krug said she began reviewing the dairy's file in April and on May 16 filed a "petition and notice of contemplated imposition of monetary penalty and denial of concentrated animal feeding operation license." An administrative law judge has been assigned to the case and a date in November is set to hear the case.

"The petition alleges Alan Ritchey, Inc. and Ritchey Ag Products, Inc. has operated a dairy in an environmentally unsafe manner," cited a press release issued May 16 from the attorney general's office. "... problems include insufficient lagoon construction, excess land application of wastes, groundwater contamination and noncompliant carcass disposal."

On April 3, a "follow-up investigation" was conducted by ODAFF at the dairy, located just north of the Red River where Fannin County, Texas, and Bryan County, Okla., meet at the river. The nine-hour survey found numerous problems, including a carcass disposal pit that was "a disaster," with "carcasses and body fluids lying on top of the ground."

On Jan. 8, 2001, an anonymous complaint alleged the dairy had over 100 head of deceased cattle in a hole in the ground. On Jan. 9, the initial inspection of the dairy was conducted and ODAFF ordered the dairy to stop placing dead animals in the burial pit and to immediately locate a rendering facility. In early 2002, a carcass disposal plan, specifically for the Ritchey Dairy, was approved.

Besides the runoff from the carcasses, the April 3 inspection cited wastewater runoff, from silage pits and lagoon, and application to the land, were in violation to the regulatory codes.

The administrative petition also cites ODAFF can assess an administrative penalty up to $10,000 per day of noncompliance, and that each day a violation is committed or allowed to continue is a separate offense and fines could be assessed accordingly.

On June 12, the EPA's Region 6 office in Dallas notified Alan Ritchey that his dairy was in violation of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) regulations and the federal agency was filing an administrative order asking for compliance of the Clean Water Act. Ritchey was ordered to "immediately take all necessary measures to prevent any discharge of pollutants to waters of the U.S. from any part of the facility," as well as initiate a weekly visual inspection program and submit specific information concerning discharges within the last five years.

Requests for comment from Alan Ritchey, Inc., regarding these matters were not granted as of press time.