Ritchey Dairy reps inform fed, state agencies of their actions

By LORI COPE | East Texas Edition

August 28, 2003 -- The Alan Ritchey Dairy, facing severe environmental allegations, took advantage of the "show cause" meeting on Aug. 21 and for over three hours presented information on actions they have taken to bring their dairy into environmental compliance.

The dairy, located just north of Red River in Yuba, Okla., has been under the environmental gun since an April 3 inspection found numerous violations of the Confirned Animal Feeding Operation regulations.

As part of a federal administrative order issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) June 12, the dairy was ordered to "show cause why (they) have not complied with" regulations, and "why EPA should not take further enforcement action against" the dairy for the violations cited.

At the Aug. 21 meeting, dairy representatives presented information to representatives of EPA, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry (ODAFF), and the Oklahoma Attorney General's office (AG). ODAFF and Oklahoma AG are seeking compliance with the dairy as well, and have issued orders and threatened civil litigation.

On Aug. 22, an EPA spokesperson said the next step is to "evaluate the mountain of information" presented by the dairy to see if further actions need to be taken by the federal agency. The spokesperson believed the evaluation timeframe would be about three or four weeks.