Dairy cattle manure gets some of the blame for poor water quality in Chehalis basin
By Michele Vowell, The Chronicle, 6/13/1996, The Chronicle
The State Department of Ecology will soon become the dairy manure police in an attempt to clean the Chehalis River Basin.
Because the upper Chehalis River Basin does not meet state water quality standards, the department is required to implement a program to clean up the river under the federal law.
The upper Chehalis River Basin is the area upstream from Porter, including the 2,600 square miles that drain into the Chehalis River. Major tributaries are the Newaukum, Skookumchuck and Black rivers.
"The Centralia reach of the Chehalis River is characterized by high temperatures near the water surface and virtually no oxygen in deeper waters," explained Kahle Jennings of the Department of Ecology.
Jennings, a watershed specialist for the DOE's Water Quality Program, presented a new plan for the river to a small audience Wednesday-at Centralia High School. The plan, called a Nonpoint Pollution Control Strategy, is expected to be approved next week.
The strategy identifies a time line for the basin to meet water quality standards published in a July 1994 study. The document focused on the total maximum daily load (TMDL) for the river.
The strategy requires local governments and residents to decrease nonpoint sources of pollution, including the following:
Urban stormwater runoff containing oil and gas residues, fertilizers and pesticides from yards, pet wastes and other pollutants picked up from roads and parking lots;
Erosion from farmland and forest lands:
Bacteria and nutrients from failing septic systems,,
And animal waste from commercial and non-commercial livestock operations.
"It's not an option," Jennings said. "It's a legal requirement."
The DOE does not have authority to regulate everything, Jennings added.
Local governments have jurisdiction over septic systems and urban stormwater runoff. The state Department of Natural Resources and conservation districts have jurisdiction in forest and most agriculture issues.
But the DOE has the authority to regulate dairy farms.
"In the area covered by the upper Chehalis TMDL, intensive surface water quality monitoring data indicates that livestock impacts - primarily dairies - are a likely source of water quality degradation," Jennings said.
"There are a lot of small operations out there that are cooperatively adding a lot of fecal coliform to the river."
For the next, 15 months, the department will try to get dairy' farmers in the upper Chehalis River Basin to voluntarily comply with state regulations for storing manure, Jennings said.
If this doesn't work, the DOE will flex its regulatory authority.
Here is what local dairy farmers can expect:
Starting with the rainy season in late 1997, the DOE will inspect dairy farms that are considered a "likely source of water quality degradation," Jennings said.
The state agency already has an idea which dairy farms contribute to poor water quality in the basin, Jennings said.
The knowledge is based on studies in 1991 and 1992. The documents showed areas of high fecal coliform bacteria. It was correlated with the location of dairy farms.
"We're looking at the areas that are having a problem," Jennings said.
In order of priority, the following stretches of water have been identified for dairy inspections and possible permitting: Salzer Creek, Chehalis River at river mile 70.7, Dillenbaugh Creek, Chehalis River between river miles 97.9 and 77.6, South Fork Chehalis River, Black River, Lincoln Creek, Independence Creek and Scatter Creek.
When the DOE comes to inspect, dairy farms that allow too much manure to run into the waterways will have 30 days to correct the problem or be placed under the requirements for a discharge permit. Depending on the number of animals, the permit can cost between $70 and $700 per year.
Dairy farms would remain under the permit until they demonstrated continuous compliance for three years, he added.
The inspections should be completed by June 30, 1998.
Dairy farmers at the water quality seminar were unhappy with the plan, saying that they were being singled out.
Jennings responded that the Legislature gave the department the task of regulating dairy farms. Even so, the primary goal of the strategy is "compliance with water quality laws," officials said.
And the plan does not require all dairy farmers to operate under a permit, said Phil Kauzloric, dairy coordinator for the DOE.
"No matter what size of a dairy you are, if you don't pollute, you don't need a permit," Kauzloric said.
By controlling dairy and other nonpoint sources of pollution, the DOE hopes to bring the Upper Chehalis River Basin 50 percent closer to meeting state water quality standards.
The state agency devised a similar strategy to cut pollution in the river from Darigold, and the cities of Centralia and Chehalis. These "point" sources discharge water from their wastewater treatment plants into the Chehalis River.
Within seven years, Chehalis and Darigold are required to cut the wastewater discharge to zero during dry, summer months when the river is low. Centralia is also required to significantly reduce its discharge.
If the DOE fails to significantly reduce nonpoint pollution in the next four years, it would be forced to reduce the amount of wastewater discharge by the cities of Centralia and Pe Ell.
"We all play a role in it (polluting the river); and we all have something to gain by improving water quality in the basin, said Dave Palmer of the Chehalis River Council which sponsored the meeting.
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